Congress Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh has taken to Twitter to criticise her own party for the farce it created over the ‘list’ of buses sent to the Uttar Pradesh Government. In a tweet today she condemned Congress for playing petty politics at the time of such a disaster. She wrote that in the list of 1000 buses provided by Congress, a staggering 297 vehicles are junk buses, 98 of it are auto-rickshaws or other vehicles like trucks and ambulances and 68 vehicles are without papers.
आपदा के वक्त ऐसी निम्न सियासत की क्या जरूरत,एक हजार बसों की सूची भेजी, उसमें भी आधी से ज्यादा बसों का फर्जीवाड़ा, 297 कबाड़ बसें, 98 आटो रिक्शा व एबुंलेंस जैसी गाड़ियां, 68 वाहन बिना कागजात के, ये कैसा क्रूर मजाक है, अगर बसें थीं तो राजस्थान,पंजाब, महाराष्ट्र में क्यूं नहीं लगाई।
— Aditi Singh (@AditiSinghINC) May 20, 2020
She castigated her party for making a joke of the critical situation the country is in doe to the coronavirus outbreak. She wondered why didn’t Congress ask for buses from its ruling states like Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra if they are unable to arrange the number of buses committed to UP government by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi.
In her subsequent tweet, Aditi Singh wonders when almost 1000 students belonging to Uttar Pradesh were stuck in Kota, Rajasthan, where were these buses? Why didn’t the Congress then come ahead to arrange buses for these children stranded in its ruled state?
She goes on to praise Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath for being empathetic towards these students and arranging for buses to bring them back to Uttar Pradesh, unlike the Congress. She claims that when the Rajasthan CM proved incompetent in arranging conveyance for the stranded children, Yogi Adityanath intervened and immediately arranged for buses to ferry the children from Kota back to Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan CM had also praised Yogi Adityanath for this, claims Aditi Singh.
कोटा में जब UP के हजारों बच्चे फंसे थे तब कहां थीं ये तथाकथित बसें, तब कांग्रेस सरकार इन बच्चों को घर तक तो छोड़िए,बार्डर तक ना छोड़ पाई,तब श्री @myogiadityanath जी ने रातों रात बसें लगाकर इन बच्चों को घर पहुंचाया, खुद राजस्थान के सीएम ने भी इसकी तारीफ की थी।
— Aditi Singh (@AditiSinghINC) May 20, 2020
Congress had sought disqualification of Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh
It is pertinent to note here that Congress leader Aditi Singh had earlier too had miffed her party members after she defied the party call to boycott the special assembly session called by the BJP in UP Assembly to discuss sustainable development goals defined by the UN in October last year. Singh’s chutzpah had irked the Congress party to an extent that it had sought her disqualification in November last year after issuing a show-cause notice against her.
The list of buses provided by Congress to ferry migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh was erroneous
Following the media reports that said that the ‘list of buses’ provided by Congress to ferry migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh was erroneous and included autos, trucks and two-wheelers, the Uttar Pradesh government had officially acknowledged that the data they received from the Congress party indeed include details of such vehicles. According to a letter written by the Lucknow RTO department to Police Commissionerate Lucknow, a staggering 170 vehicles out of the list of 1049 are not buses as claimed by the Congress party.
The letter addressed to the Police Commissionerate Lucknow categorises the different types of vehicles based on the list of buses provided by the Congress party. The analysis of the 1049 registration details of the vehicles revealed that 31 of them were registered as autos/three-wheelers, 69 of them as ambulances/school buses/trucks and there were no details available for 70 vehicles. Furthermore, it added that a vehicle with registration number RJ 51 PA 0288 was added in two lists.
In addition, the preliminary inspection of 492 vehicles provided in the list of buses sent by the Congress party revealed that fitness validity of 59 vehicles has expired, while insurance of 29 vehicles have lapsed. Apart from this, the inspection of the data disclosed that three vehicles with registration numbers- HR 55 A 4949 (Goods carrier), RJ 02 PA 1238 (Motor cab) and UP 83 T 1006 (auto-rickshaw) did not belong the bus category.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra issues clarification
After the above letters of the UP govt went viral on social media, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter to defend herself. She said that in the inspection by UP govt, it has been found that there are 879 buses in the list of 1049, thereby admitting that the rest 170 are not buses.
The Congress general secretary also alleged that UP govt has kept more than 500 buses blocked for several hours, and now more than 300 buses are arriving on the Delhi border. “At least let these 879 buses run”, she said. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also assured that her party will provide a new list of 200 buses by tomorrow, and will make the buses available. “Inspect that list also”, she added.
UP government had agreed to Congress offer of buses
On Monday, the Uttar Pradesh government had accepted Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s offer of providing 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The UP administration has written to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to submit the details of the buses along with drivers and co-drivers so that the process can be started. On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she had written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. Accordingly, the Congress party had submitted a list of buses they intend to use with the UP government.
But in a major embarrassment to Congress, the list of ‘buses’ sent by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming to be that filled with migrant workers stranded at Delhi-UP border contains blacklisted numbers, cars and even three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.
