West Bengal govt to bear train fare of migrants returning home: Mamata

The West Bengal government will bear the entire cost of movement of migrant labourers from the state who are stranded in various parts of the country and are returning home by special trains, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Saturday (May 16).

No migrant labourer will be charged, she said.

“Saluting the toil faced by our migrant breathen, I am pleased to announce the decision of GoWB to bear the entire cost of movement for our migrant workers by special trains from other states to West Bengal. No migrant will be charged,” Banerjee tweeted.

Saluting the toil faced by our migrant breathen, I am pleased to announce the decision of GoWB to bear the entire cost of movement for our migrant workers by special trains from other states to West Bengal. No migrant will be charged. Letter to Rly Board attached. pic.twitter.com/6bdxn7fwB8

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 16, 2020

A communication in this regard was sent to Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav by state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, she said.

Banerjee said on Thursday that her government made arrangements for 105 more trains to bring back people stuck in different parts of the country amid claims by opposition parties that the state was not eager to ferry home stranded labourers and pilgrims.

Over the coming days, these special trains will embark from different states for various destinations across Bengal bringing our people back home.

The exact details of each of these trains will be available at: https://t.co/DS3yrvQszP (2/2)

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 14, 2020

Of these 105 trains, three will commence their journey from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore Urban on Saturday.

The state government’s exercise to ferry home people stranded during the lockdown in trains will continue till June 14.

Earlier, the government had given its nod for 10 trains to facilitate the return of people stranded in other states during the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. Three of the 10 trains have reached the state so far.

First trains ferrying migrants to West Bengal and Bihar leaves Maharashtra

The first trains carrying migrant workers to Bihar and West Bengal, which had so far disallowed labourers to come back, departed on Saturday from Maharashtra after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar spoke to respective CMs, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has said.

He said the Maharashtra government so far transported about 2.45 lakh migrant workers to their respective home states (excluding WB and Bihar) in special trains amidst the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Deshmukh said the state government was bearing the expenses of tickets of the migrant workers wishing to travel back to their native states.

“Around 2.45 lakh migrant workers have been sent to their respective home states by running 191 train services till now,” Deshmukh said in a video message.

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The trains are being run from parts of Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

“We could not send trains to Bihar and West Bengal since these states did not allow it. But Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Thackeray personally spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over phone. Today, the first trains carrying migrant workers to West Bengal and Bihar were sent,” said Deshmukh.

The NCP leader also expressed the need to operate at least 10 trains daily each to West Bengal and Bihar.

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Notably, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had on Thursday hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not allowing migrants to return and appealed to all the states to give railways approval to run more trains.

“The chief minister (Thackeray) has sanctioned Rs 55 crore from the chief ministers relief fund for sending these workers. Ticket fare is not being sought from any worker,” Deshmukh added.

He informed that 3,71,310 migrant workers have camped in 3,884 shelters in Maharashtra and the state government has arranged for their food.

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(With input from agencies)