UP polls: No communal migration here, says Kairana residents

Kairana: The BJP manifesto includes migration of Hindu families in western UP as a major issue but in Kairana, a township in Shamli district, the issue is nowhere to be found.

“There has been no migration on communal lines from here. There are thousands of people who work in Panipat and Karnal and commute on a daily basis. Some families have even shifted to these places but that is because their jobs are there and not due to any other reason,” said Rajvir Malik, a well-to-do  farmer whose three sons are working in Karnal and two of them have shifted with their families.

Sanjeev Tyagi, a railway employee, said that the real issue in Kairana and adjoining districts is unemployment which had not been addressed by any political party. “There are no job opportunities for the youth who are forced to move to bigger cities or other states for livelihood. Instead of giving the issue a communal color, these parties should try and set up industries here so that migration level comes down. The local people in Kairana vehemently deny that it is only the Hindus who have left the town. I know of more Muslim families who have migrated than the Hindu families,” said Suresh Tyagi, a businessman.

“Someone wrote my cousin’s phone number  when he went out of town on his locked house and also that it was up for sale. All the TV channels then started showing this and my cousin was flooded with inquiries,” he said.