Since last few days there has been a demand from the commuters in Mumbai to allow fullly vaccinated benefeciaries to travel in local trains, the opposition party in state Bharaiya Janata Party has also backed the demand of the citizens, however the Maharashtra government hasn't responded to it yet.
On Monday, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray made a phone call to the Leader of Opposition Pravin Darekar to discuss the resumption of Mumbai Local services for all. "The CM was positive about allowing all Mumbaikars to commute by local," informed the Leader of Opposition's (LoP) office.
BJP leader Pravin Darekar also said the saffron party will launch protests if the state government doesn't allow people who have taken two doses of COVID-19 vaccine to travel by suburban trains in Mumbai.
Speaking to reporters in Dombivali township in Thane district, the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council said residents of Thane, Karjat and Kasara need to travel to their workplaces in Mumbai but they couldn't due to the present restrictions on train travel.
The state BJP unit on Sunday additionally urged the Maha Vikas Aghadi to provide travel allowance every month to Mumbaikars if trains are not opened.
At present, only employees of essential services are allowed to board the limited number of trains. The restriction was brought in to ensure social distancing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a report, state BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said, “Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray should allow people of all categories to travel in local trains or provide Rs 5,000 allowance every month to each individual."
In absence of local train services, commuting long distances in Mumbai and suburbs is both expensive and time-consuming. The local trains which were open to the public before March were again limited to only essential service people due to a massive spike in Covid cases in the second wave of the pandemic outbreak.
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