CHENNAI: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan on Tuesday took a swipe at the Union government over the migrant workers' issue in Mumbai, saying the crisis was a "time bomb" and that the "balcony government" should keep an eye on the ground.
More than 1,000 migrant workers, who earn daily wages and been stuck in Mumbai since the last three weeks, gathered in Bandra in Mumbai on Tuesday demanding transport facilities to go back to their native places, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus-enforced curbs till May 3.
Haasan, earlier while flagging the need to address the problems of such migrant workers, had sarcastically remarked that the Centre should not remain a "balcony government", alluding to the relatively better-off citizens.
"All the balcony people take a long and hard look at the ground. First it was Delhi, now Mumbai," he said, in an apparent reference to the migration of labourers in Delhi in large numbers earlier during the lockdown.
"The migrant crisis is a time bomb that must be defused before it becomes a crisis bigger than Corona. Balcony government must keep their eyes on what's happening on the ground too," he said on his Twitter handle.
The gathering in suburban Bandra in Mumbai earlier in the day, in violation of lockdown norms, created a potential law and order situation and the police had resorted to mild force to scatter the crowd.
On Tuesday morning, Modi had announced the extension of the ongoing lockdown till May 3, as part of the country's fight against the spread of coronavirus.