The novel coronavirus outbreak had left many people stranded across the length and breadth of India. With most transport systems shut for over a month now, the Indian railways has not begun running trains to ferry migrants back to their home states.
On Saturday, hours after West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandhopadhyay confirmed in a press conference that the decision to run trains from Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana was being finalised, the Ministry of Railways has now tweeted confirmation of the same.
Earlier on Friday, the Free Press Journal's Prema Rajaram had shared the letter sent by Bandhopadhyay giving permission to clear trains. This reportedly came after Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Confirming the same, the Ministry of Railways took to Twitter stating that while the Indian Railways had so far run over 300 trains, until Saturday morning as far as West Bengal was concerned, they had "received approval for only two Shramik special trains, one from Ajmer Sharif and the other from Ernakulam".
"After request of Hon’ble HM, today afternoon WB has approved 2 trains from Punjab, two from Tamil Nadu, three from Karnataka and one from Telangana, which are being arranged," the Rail Ministry tweeted. It added that West Bengal had however not any train from Maharashtra, stating that there is a requirement of 16 trains to Bengal.
"Presently 6 requests are pending for which approval is still awaited from West Bengal." it tweeted.
The Trinamool Congress however differs in its recounting of the sequence of events. Responding to a PTI tweet that quoted Amit Shah as stating that the West Bengal government was not allowing trains with migrants reaching the state, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee took to Twitter stating this this was "misleading" and a "bundle of lies".
"A HM failing to discharge his duties during this crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with bundle of lies! Ironically he’s talking about the very ppl who’ve been literally left to fate by his own Govt. Mr @AmitShah , prove your fake allegations or apologise, (sic)" he wrote.
On Saturday afternoon, Bandhopadhyay had said that once these individuals arrive they will all undergo health screening. Another way to help the migrants who had resorted to walking home, the Home Secretary said was to send buses for them.
"When they reach the state border we are trying to use state government and private buses to send them to their home district," he had explained. 1000 buses are being taken from the Transport Department, Bandhopadhyay explained.
"In many cases, when it comes to migrants from other states who are in our state, we are reaching out to the stranded migrant labours to convey them to the designated drop points for their states.
Apart from trains and buses, he said that many are arranging their own transport to travel. He spoke about 19,000 outbound small cars, 1,200 buses that had been approved, as well as 6,000 small cars whose inbound pass had been approved.
