Mumbai stations abuzz with migrants while Centre, state play blame game

Prominent stations of Mumbai witnessed a mammoth crowd of migrant labourers from Tuesday (May 26) after till late in the night, as they assembled at the terminals in the hope of catching a train home in northern states.

According to reports, the Lokmanya Tikal Terminus, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Bandra, Borivali and Panvel stations, witnessed crowds of men, women and children, waiting with luggage to board Shramik Special trains scheduled to leave from these stations.

While such scenes have become a usual sight in Mumbai’s stations, most of the aspirants never get to board trains as they have not registered themselves for the special trains, reports said.

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According to NDTV, a similar scene was witnessed at the Bandra Terminus last Tuesday (May 26), when people from Bihar gathered outside the station and waited till police had to disperse them.

Despite heavy deployment of police at these stations, an officer told Indian Express that it was “impossible to enforce social distancing in such situations.”

The situation has also triggered a blame game between the Centre and the state government.

NCP leader and Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik blamed the railway ministry of going back on its promise of sending 49 trains from LTT, most of them bound for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and sending 16 trains instead.

The ministry has shot back, accusing the Maharashtra government of politicising the issue. The railways has claimed that despite trains being ready, passengers were not available.

The railways said as of 11 pm, out of the 145 trains planned to depart from Maharashtra, only 60 could due to lack of passengers.

In a series of tweets over a span of four hours, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said Shramik Special trains that were planned to have originated from Maharashtra failed to do so because of the state’s lack of preparedness.

He said 145 such trains were planned to be operationalised from Maharashtra on Tuesday, but less than 10 per cent could actually run due to non-availability of passengers.

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“Till 6 pm, 85 out of the 145 trains were to run from Maharashtra today (Tuesday), out of which only 27 could run due to non-arrangement of passengers by the state government. I request the Maharashtra government again to please help us take the poor labourers to their homes,” Goyal tweeted.

Earlier, he tweeted, saying the railways had planned to run 50 trains from Maharashtra by 3 pm, but only 13 could be operationalised. “On request of Maharashtra Govt, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers. I request Maharashtra Government to fully cooperate in ensuring that the distressed migrants are able to reach their homes and bring passengers to stations in time, and not cause further delays. It will affect the entire network and planning,” the minister said.

“The Maharashtra government has tried to politicise the difficulties of migrant labourers,” he alleged.

Earlier, the railways issued statements, saying it had planned 125 trains for evacuating migrants from Maharashtra on May 25, but the state government was only able to give information for 41 till 2 am.

“Out of these 41 trains, only 39 could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and two trains had to be cancelled. “After meticulous planning and sustained efforts, the railways mobilised its resources at very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26,” a statement issued by the national transporter said.

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“Till 12 noon, 25 trains were planned to run from Maharashtra but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding for the first train could only commence at CSMT at 12.30 pm,” it added.

According to the railways, 68 trains from Maharashtra were planned to depart for Uttar Pradesh, 27 for Bihar, 41 for West Bengal, two each for Odisha and Tamil Nadu and one each for Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala.

(With inputs from agencies)