Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday rejected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's claim of "ill-treatment" of migrant workers in Maharashtra and said they in fact praised his counterpart, Uddhav Thackeray, while leaving the western state amid lockdown.
Raut, whose party heads the coalition government in Maharashtra, said he would send to Adityanath video clips of migrant workers hailing Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Speaking to reporters, Raut said, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that we ill-treated migrant workers. We will send him video clips of migrant workers hailing Uddhav Thackeray while leaving Maharashtra."
Raut disapproved of Adityanath's comment on "ill- treatment" of migrant workers who have left Maharashtra in large numbers in view of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown which rendered them jobless.
Adityanath should not have made such claims. He should now spend most of his time in ensuring food and water to migrant workers who have returned home," the Sena leader said.
Raut said if the UP chief minister wants states to seek his permission for employing people from the northern state, he should not forget that migrant workers came to Maharashtra in search of jobs.
"We accepted them and let them work here. We have taken care of these people not just in the last one-and a-half months...they have been working here for years. We all were living together in harmony, he said.
Upset that migrant labourers were "not properly taken care of" by various states in the wake of lockdown, Adityanath on Sunday said any state that wants migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh back has to seek permission from his government and need to ensure their socio-legal-monetary rights.