Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting to draw political mileage from the coronavirus pandemic.

He charged that the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package announced by the Narendra Modi government would only benefit the corporate houses that had caused maximum damage to the economy. “The interests of labourers and farmers had been ignored in the package,” he said, adding that the government had failed to take the measures required for tackling the crisis caused by the pandemic.

“The BJP has drawn grand plans for taking political mileage out of the pandemic and with this aim the government gave a call for banging thali and clapping. When the strategy failed to deliver the desired results, the government   extended lockdown without consulting anyone and giving time to the migrant labourers to return to their native places,” Akhilesh Yadav said here on Monday.

“The migrant labourers are nowhere in the agenda of the government and it kept extending the lockdown. The migrant labourers ultimately ran out of patience and they were forced to move  out of big cities of Maharashtra and Gujarat and move out with whatever means available to them,” Yadav said, adding  that many migrants  died midway and the BJP government at the Centre and in UP were responsible for these deaths.

He said the government should have given at least a week’s time to the migrant labourers to move out of big cities.

Referring to the announcement for constitution of migrant labour commission, the SP chief said the government was misleading people as there was nothing new in the idea, skill development being an old scheme of the government.

He said private companies were empanelled by the Skill Development department for placement of the skilled people. He said the government should share the information with the people as to how many companies had been empanelled so far.

Akhilesh Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while announcing the Rs 20 lakh crore package talked of self-reliance but no road map for achieving the objective had been prepared by the government so far.  

He said in the name of development, vast tracts of land of farmers were proposed to be acquired and would be given to industrial houses.