If Mamata government approves .. Bengal trains will run in three hours: Railway Minister's statement for migrant workers

New delhi date. 15 May 2020, Friday

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has targeted the governments of several states, including West Bengal, over the issue of migrant workers. He said 1,200 trains were ready to transport migrant laborers to their homes but several state governments were allowing fewer trains. However, he praised the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments in this regard. According to Union Minister Goyal, by order of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 1,200 trains have been diverted from other work to reserve only for traveling laborers and 300 trains can run daily.

But West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand all these states are allowing for very few trains. Piyush Goyal lauded the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments for taking full care of the facilities of their workers and said that 400 and 200 trains had left there respectively.

Targeting the West Bengal government

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said the West Bengal government was not allowing tourists to return home from the state and had only allowed seven special labor trains. He termed the West Bengal government for not providing proper facilities to its migrant workers to return home as a cruel joke and criticized the Mamata government.

Continuing his attack on the Mamata government, he said that millions of tourists from West Bengal were working in various states of the country and currently wanted to go home. After the Home Minister's letter, West Bengal approved only seven trains while the Railway Minister has shown readiness to run the trains in three hours. "There are 8,000 stations in the country and we are ready to provide trains from whatever the state government says," Goyal said.

West Bengal approved 105 trains till May 30 (for next 15 days) after the Railway Minister made the request through TV. Only two lakh people will be able to travel by 105 trains. When the number of people wanting to go to West Bengal is around 50 lakh, only if 105 trains are allowed daily, people will not have to walk, get off the roads and get on the trucks.

At the same time, the Railway Minister said that instead of traveling on foot, bicycle or any other means, the Railways was ready to take them home by requesting them to go to the nearest Collector's Office and write a letter of approval from the state government.

Disclosure in case of rail fare

On the issue of controversy over fares of labor trains, the Railway Minister said that if the cost of a special train is Rs 100, the cost of Rs 85 will be borne by the Central Government and the Railways itself. If everything is announced to be free, millions of people will rush and create chaos. It is up to the state governments to provide the train tickets, pay for them themselves, collect them from someone or collect from the passengers. Some states gave the money themselves and some states like Bihar showed willingness to return the money to the passengers but the opposition tried to create controversy.

The nature of rail travel will change in the future

According to the Railway Minister, in future, rail, bus or taxi will be in the new estimate. Bed rolls, sheets, blankets, pillows etc. cannot be provided in the railways keeping in view the health of the people. Meal arrangements will also change.