To,

Chief Minister

Uttar Pradesh Govt

Lucknow                                                                                 Dated: 28 March, 2020

Subject: Harvesting of Crops and Care of Migrant Labour

Sir,

We are extremely distressed by the reports we are receiving on above two issues and we wish to make this fervent appeal to you for immediate and urgent action.

1. In the rural heartland, despite your orders that harvesting will be allowed and fertilizer shops be kept open, the local police is repeatedly and continuously assaulting the peasants and workers who are going to their fields to harvest Mustard, Wheat, Potato, Sugarcane and fodder amongst others. If the ripe crop is not harvested it will dry up and perish creating a Himalayan crisis for the farmers and for people of the state and the country.

We request you to immediately issue instructions that farmers and peasants going to their fields will not be stopped. They should only be instructed to follow the Corona Medical Advisory of keeping a distance of 1 metre, using face masks and repeated hand washes.

2. Several lac workers migrating back to their villages, walking on foot from their place of work due to loss of livelihood are sitting at borders and in several districts. Their suffering, especially small children, women and the old, due to hunger, extreme tiredness and thirst has shaken the soul of the country.

While you have issued instructions to people not to move and to other state Chief Secretaries to make provisions for migrant labour, the daily information being released on the perils of compacting Corona is causing extreme fear and panic and people are moving out of the crowded metropolitan slum dwellings in increasingly large numbers. It is only a matter of time before this humanitarian crises reaches uncontrollable proportions and people start falling sick and dying on the road side.

We, the AIKSCC request you to kindly immediately salvage this bad situation by providing these stranded workers and their families with free food and shelter at every block level and other govt office and schools and make transport available to them to reach their homes.

We also urge you to write to the Hon’ble Prime Minister and Railway Minister to provide all migrant labour with adequate number of trains to enable them to reach their homes after travelling without rush along with full Corona precautions.

Thanking you in anticipation,

VM Singh, Convenor AIKSCC,

Working Group members, Atul Anjan and Dr. Ashish Mital and UP Convenors AIKSCC, Dr. BL Verma and Akhil Sangharshi