Migrants stranded in Punjab to pay for rail travel

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 3

Migrants in Punjab who will be ferried to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on ‘Shramik Special’ trains will have to pay the rail fare. To date, 6.44 lakh migrants have registered themselves with the state government for journey back home — 3.26 lakh from UP and 2.22 lakh from Bihar. Workers from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh too are queuing up for transportation back home.

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The Indian Railways has categorically told the Punjab Government that it would have to collect the fare from the passengers. The cost for travel in the sleeper class, depending on the distance, varies anything between Rs 500 and Rs 900 per person. “A family of five, we have been depending on dry ration distributed by the state government for subsistence. We belong to Raebareli in UP. It will be impossible for us to pay rail fare for the return journey. I had already packed my belongings, thinking that the government would bear the cost of travel”, said a dejected Shalinder, a Ludhiana-based labourer.

Three days ago, Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh had directed all DCs to collect data on migrant labourers stranded in Punjab while urging the PM to arrange special trains for their transportation.

A senior government functionary said the communication from the Railways had put the state government in a bind. “The Congress government’s goodwill gesture has been stone-walled by the Centre which should have run these trains free of cost as the labourers, rendered jobless by the lockdown, have no money”, he said, expressing surprise at the Centre’s decision.