Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked the government for declaring in Parliament on Monday, the first day of the uninterrupted 18-day monsoon session, that he did not know how many migrant workers had died during the coronavirus disease (Covid -19) -induced confinement while returning to their places of origin.
“The Modi government does not know how many migrant workers died or how many people lost their jobs during the shutdown,” he tweeted in Hindi.
“You didn’t count and what, nobody died? Yes, but it is unfortunate that there is no impact on the government. The world saw them die, but the Modi government had no idea, ”Gandhi added.
मोदी सरकार नहीं जानती कि लॉकडाउन में कितने प्रवासी मज़दूर मरे और कितनी नौकरियाँ गयीं।
तुमने ना गिना तो क्या मौत ना हुई?
हाँ मगर दुख है सरकार पे असर ना हुई,
उनका मरना देखा ज़माने ने,
एक मोदी सरकार है जिसे ख़बर ना हुई।– Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 15, 2020
In response to a written question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State (MoS) for Labor and Employment, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, had said on Monday that the government had no record of migrant worker deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. . “Such data was not kept,” the minister had said in the written response.
In response to another question, Gangwar had said that the government had no assessment of the job losses of migrant workers during the viral outbreak.
When asked “if the government has provided any compensation / financial assistance to the families of the victims,” the government had said, “the question does not arise” as it had no records in the first place.
However, on the total number of migrants who had returned to their states of origin, the minister presented state data and said: “More than 630,7000 migrants moved to various destinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the Shramik 4611 Special Trains were operated to transport returned migrants ”.
By one estimate, 122 million people have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. About 75% of them were small traders and day laborers.
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