Coronavirus has created havoc in the entire world. India is now the tenth affected nation in the world from a coronavirus pandemic. Due to lockdown, many migrant workers and students stuck in several parts of the country. Many migrant workers are going back walking towards their hometown miles away. The government has made an arrangement of special Shramik trains for migrant workers. Maharashtra is the most affected state of India with the numbers climbing more than 50000. On Sunday, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray address to the state and said that he had demanded 80 migrant special trains per day for the state to ferry migrants home, it was getting only 40. Uddhav Thackeray accused Indian Railways of not providing enough trains to Maharashtra despite demand.
Piyush Goyal, the minister of Railways issued a counter statement and dismissed the claims. He blamed the state government for canceling several Shramik trains citing lack of adequate safety measures.
Uddhav Thackeray mentioned in the video conference that he had put in a request for 80 Shramik trains but the center has only allowed 30 to 40 trains. He claimed that he had prepared a list of migrants workers in his state who want to go back to their respective native states.
Piyush Goyal tweeted on Sunday that his ministry would work overnight if it received a list of trains, passengers and destinations from the Maharashtra Chief Minister within one hour. He continued to tweet till 2.11 AM. Below is a series of tweets.
He added,
Sadly, it has been 1.5 hours but Maharashtra Govt. has been unable to give required information about tomorrow’s planned 125 trains to GM of Central Railway. Planning takes time & we do not want train to stand empty at the stations, so it’s impossible to plan without full details
Our migrant laborers are suffering badly from this coronavirus and lockdown. We Entertales, urge from our people that wherever you see any migrant laborers walking back to their home, kindly provide them food and water. We wish the world overcome from this issue as earliest.
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