The chief ministers of at least three states -- Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh -- have come out against the resumption of train services from Tuesday, cautioning that it will increase transmission rate and make contact tracing harder.
More important, it could lead to chaos in their states. The chief ministers voiced their objections in a virtual meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tamil Nadu -- which reported 798 new cases on Monday with its tally crossing the 8,000-mark -- said trains should not be allowed to ply till May 31. He also said flights should not allowed. The regular train service to Chennai (from Delhi) will commence from May 12.
Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao reasoned that passenger trains should not resume as the incidence of coronavirus is highest in cities; therefore, inter-city travel should be avoided to decrease the risk of transmission.
There are more coronavirus victims in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Hence if train services are allowed there would be movement of people from one destination to the other. Nobody knows who is going from where to where. It will not be possible to conduct tests on everyone. It is also difficult to put all those who travelled by trains under quarantine, he pointed out.
