Rail Minister slams Bengal govt for blocking Shramik trains

Soon after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced to run 105 Shramik Special trains to transport the stranded workers, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, here on Thursday, slammed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government for denying clearance to run more trains and termed it "a cruel joke" on the people.

In a series of tweets, Goyal said, "After my statement yesterday (Wednesday), the West Bengal government has awakened from its deep slumber. The state government has, so far, allowed only seven trains for migrant labourers. Because a large number of Bengal workers are away from home, I appealed to them (TMC) to give permission to run more trains."

According to him, the West Bengal requires to run 105 trains a day, but it has reportedly prepared a list of only 105 trains for the next 30 days. "It's a cruel joke on workers of West Bengal that the state government is not allowing them the facility to return home," Goyal, also the Union Minister for Commerce, said.

His remarks came after Banerjee tweeted that her government would run 105 additional special trains to bring home migrants stranded in other parts of the country.

"Towards our commitment to helping all our people stuck in different parts of the country and who want to return to Bengal, I am pleased to announce that we have arranged 105 additional special trains. Over the coming days, these special trains will embark from different states for various destinations across Bengal bringing our people back home," the Chief Minister tweeted.

Slamming the TMC government, the BJP leader said, "So far, the Bengal government has not allowed eight trains to run, as per its announcement last week. It's a petty attempt to trick Bengal's migrant workers. The government is running away from responsibility to take the poor labourers home."

Citing the example of UP, the Minister said, "It cleared 400 trains in less than 15 days and brought its migrant workers home".

"Instead of showing urgency, the West Bengal government is preventing labourers from getting quick assistance. West Bengal's poor labourers are not being allowed to come to their homes by their government.

"I appeal to the West Bengal government to think a bit about interests of labourers in recovering from this crisis of coronavirus epidemic, and to allow them to run labour special trains as soon as possible to take them home," Goyal said.

A war of words had broken out between the Centre and the West Bengal government after Home Minister Amit Shah alleged the TMC government was not cooperating over stranded migrants.

In his letter to Banerjee, Shah said the West Bengal government was not allowing trains carrying migrant workers to reach the state, which may might add to the labourers' hardship. Not allowing trains to reach West Bengal was "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state, he added.

The railways has started to run Shramik Special trains from May 1 to transport the stranded migrants, students, pilgrims and tourists. Till Thursday, the railways had operated 806 Shramik Special trains and transported over 10 lakh workers.

( With inputs from IANS )