A political slugfest broke out on Monday over the issue of 'homecoming' of migrants with the Congress offering to pay for the travel of the stranded workers, and the BJP hitting back, saying the railwayswas already bearing 85 percent of the travel cost and only 15 percent was being taken from the state governments.
Apart from the Congress, other opposition parties, including theCPI-M, the National Conference and the Loktantrik Janata Dal have criticised the Centre amidst reports that migrant workers are not able to afford to travel back to their native places.
Accusing the Central government and the Indian Railways of ignoring the demands made by the Congress for ensuring safe and free travel of migrant workers and labourers to their homes, party president Sonia Gandhi on Monday announced that party's state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrants stranded at various places across the country as its "humble contribution" to show solidarity with these workers, who have contributed to nation's development.
Other Congress leaders also joined Gandhi to attack the government, saying it brought back those stranded abroad free of cost while making these poor people pay. They also demanded that the 'PMCares Fund' should be used for migrants.
"On one hand, the railways is charging ticket fares from labourers stranded in other states while on the other, the railway ministry is donating Rs 151 crore to the PM-Cares Fund. Just resolve this puzzle," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
The BJP hit back saying the railways has subsidised 85 percent of ticket fare for Shramik special trains being run to ferry migrant workers and the state government has to pay the remaining 15 per cent.
"Rahul Gandhiji, I have attached guidelines of MHA which clearly states that 'no tickets to be sold at any station'. The railways has subsidised 85 percent and state governments have to pay 15 percent. The state government can pay for the tickets (Madhya Pradesh's BJP govt is paying). Ask Congress state governments to follow suit," Patra tweeted.
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The BJP leader further clarified that for each 'Shramik Express', about 1,200 tickets are given by the railways to the state government concerned.
The state governments are supposed to clear the ticket price and hand over the tickets to workers, he added.
There was no official reaction from the Indian Railways on the issue, while, off the record, sources dubbed the controversy as "political".
Criticising the government,CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said,"as the name shows, the new fund is exclusively for those whom Modi cares for. The poor and the vulnerable, the value creators, he clearly doesn't care for. Callous. Cruel. Criminal," he tweeted along with a cartoon showing a poor migrant saying they were also NRIs (not required Indians)."
The government came in for criticism after a circular from the railways said,"the local state government authority shall handover tickets to passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to the railways."
On BJP's criticism, Venugopal said, "we do not want to play politics in this. This is not the time to play politics. Those who are having no money are unable to travel in these trains, that is why our Karnataka PCC has paid for them. This is there in Kerala, where migrants do not have money to pay."