New Delhi, March 30 (IANS): The Congress has criticised the UP government for spraying chemical on migrants on way to their native places, in Bareilly on Monday.

"Who is in-charge and how did the UP govt allow this to happen!?" asked senior Congress leader Jitin Prasada.

Prasada, a former Union Minister, said, "the mistreatment of these already persecuted migrants at the hands of govt officials is despicable".

According to reports, the migrants, who had walked down from Noida and Delhi, were told by officials to wait at the bus stand where they would be provided food and buses.

Mohd Afzal, one migrant, said, "About 50 of us were seating and waiting for food and bus when some men in protective suits came and began spraying water on us. They claimed to be form the sanitisation team and were sanitising us. The children began crying and women were also shocked."

According to sources, the team sprayed the group with a diluted mixture of sodium hypochlorite.

Sodium hypochlorite is the main ingredient of laundry bleach and used extensively as bleaching agent in the textile, detergents, and paper & pulp industries. It's also used as a disinfectant.

Mohd Afzal said after the spray, the children complained of itching in eyes and some women developed rashes.

"The chemical had a strange smell. After this, most of us decided to continue our journey on foot and left Bareilly," he said. Mohd Afzal, a courier boy in a Noida company, has returned to his home in Shahjahanpur.

None of the officials in Bareilly and Lucknow, however, were ready to comment on the incident.