BJP alleged Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Kerala were the states making migrants pay
On Monday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, criticising the Centre’s decision to “make migrants pay for their return home”, said that the Congress state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy home-bound migrants stranded at various places across the country due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The Railways on Friday had rolled out non-stop ‘Shramik Special’ trains to ferry migrant workers, students and others from various states where they were stranded since the nationwide lockdown began on March 25.
Unrest among migrant labourers across the country has been palpable for a while now. On Monday, at least 200 migrant workers staged a sit-in on the Kozhikode-Mangalore National Highway in Kerala, demanding transport to return home. They were upset that some special trains, scheduled for the day, had been cancelled.
On the same day, appearing impatient to return to their native places, migrant workers pelted stones at police in Surat district of Gujarat, leaving nearly a dozen personnel injured, one of them an IPS officer, and also held protests elsewhere during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown. Several labourers came out on a road in Rajkot demanding that they be sent back to their hometowns, while some migrant workers got their heads tonsured in an area of Surat after being unable to go back home.
The Railways is charging the fare of sleeper class tickets in mail/express trains, plus a super-fast charge of Rs 30 and an additional charge of Rs 20 for the Shramik special trains.
Sonia Gandhi released an emotional video message to the migrant workers and labourers extending them all help, while criticising the Centre for not coming to their aid. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also tweeted in Hindi, “On one hand, the Railways is charging ticket fares from labourers stranded in other states, while on the other hand, the Railway Ministry is donating Rs 151 crore to the PM-Cares Fund. Just resolve this puzzle.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the workers are nation-builders and “today they [workers] are suffering and this should be a reason for pain for the whole country”. She questioned when the government can bring back stranded Indians free of cost by air, or ‘Namaste Trump’ can spend Rs 100 crore from the state treasury, why can’t train fares of migrants be paid.