'First trains ferrying migrants to WB and Bihar leave Maha'

The first trains carrying migrant

workers to Bihar and West Bengal, which had so far disallowed labourers to come back, departed on Saturday from Maharashtra after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar spoke to respective CMs, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has said.

He said the Maharashtra government so far transported about 2.45 lakh migrant workers to their respective home states (excluding WB and Bihar) in special trains amidst the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Deshmukh said the state government was bearing the expenses of tickets of the migrant workers wishing to travel back to their native states.

"Around 2.45 lakh migrant workers have been sent to their respective home states by running 191 train services till now," Deshmukh said in a video message.

 

The trains are being run from parts of Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

"We could not send trains to Bihar and West Bengal since these states did not allow it. But Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Thackeray personally spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over phone.

"Today, the first trains carrying migrant workers to West Bengal and Bihar were sent," said Deshmukh.

The NCP leader also expressed the need to operate at least 10 trains daily each to West Bengal and Bihar.

Notably, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had on Thursday hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not allowing migrants to return and appealed to all the states to give railways approval to run more trains.

"The chief minister (Thackeray) has sanctioned Rs 55 crore from the chief minister's relief fund for sending these workers. Ticket fare is not being sought from any worker," Deshmukh added.

He informed that 3,71,310 migrant workers have camped in 3,884 shelters in Maharashtra and the state government has arranged for their food.