KOLKATA: Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking that migrant labourers in different parts of the country be allowed to travel free of cost to their destination by the Railways once the lockdown is lifted.
In a series of four letters to the PM, Chowdhury said that a large portion of the migrant labourers are from the minority community and urged that the government feed these people during the month of Ramadan owing to their "hapless condition" due to the Coronavirus induced lockdown.
Highlighting the misery of migrant labourers in different parts of the country, Chowdhury sought a "direction to the Ministry of Railways to carry these penniless people to their destination free of cost". In another letter, the Baharampur MP called for strengthening of the public distribution system (PDS) in West Bengal, while claiming that food grains from the Union government were not reaching the beneficiaries of the state.
He claimed that food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana were not reaching the beneficiaries of the state, while holding that "hunger is not gender, religion or political affiliation specific". In a separate letter, he drew the attention of the prime minister to a large number of bidi workers in Murshidabad district of West Bengal having been rendered jobless during the lockdown.
The Congress leader, who hails from Murshidabad, sought the Union government's special support to facilitate production, distribution, proper monitoring of hygiene and export of the products to facilitate the revival of the bidi industry once the restrictions are partially lifted.