Politics

Deshmukh tweeted a picture which showed a group of children purportedly taking part in the protest, holding BJP flags and protest placards, but some of them with the face mask removed.

The BJP has appealed for a state-wide protest on Friday against the Sena-NCP-Congress government, alleging that it has failed to contain the pandemic in Maharashtra.

The severe cyclonic storm over the west-central Bay of Bengal was on Tuesday afternoon hurtling towards the Indian shores in West Bengal and Odisha where lakhs of people were evacuated from vulnerable areas, officials said.

Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala urged Adityanath to come to the aid of migrants and immediately grant permission to 1,000 buses made available by the Congress and not "create hurdles instead".

BJP spokesperson Ashish Agrawal criticised the meeting and said workers were not following social distancing rules.

She made the appeal in a video message posted on Twitter, a day after 24 migrant workers were killed and 36 injured when a trailer rammed into a stationary truck, both carrying passengers, on a highway near Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati asked parties in power at the Centre and different states to rise above petty politics in times of Covid-19 and ensure the safety of the migrants trying to reach home.

The first phase of the NPR in Uttar Pradesh was scheduled to be carried out between May 16 and June 30.

Congress' Chidambaram said the first thing the government should do is to "put money in the hands of 13-crore families in the bottom of the population". That will cost it only Rs 65,000 crore if Rs 5,000 is given to each family.

The migrant workers and those grounded away from their home are now facing a severe financial crunch. They cannot afford the fare, which is quite high and beyond their reach, he said.

Congress alleged that the BJP governments of both the states were discriminating against the people of Amethi who are stranded in Ahmedabad and creating hurdles in their return.

Sibal also asserted that difficulties would be aplenty going forward as social distancing in packed schools is almost impossible.

The state government had allowed the home delivery of liquor during the third phase of the coronavirus lockdown from Thursday.

Union home minister Amit Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is 'injustice' to the migrant workers from the state.

However, Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat also alleged that along with Gujarat, states of Odisha, Karnataka and West Bengal have, too, denied migrant workers from their states to return.

The Election Commission is yet to take a call on the polls, presumably in view of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.