After Amit Shah, Railway Ministry says West Bengal govt not approving enough trains for return of migrant workers
New Delhi/IBNS: After Home Minister Amit Shah accused the West Bengal government of not cooperating with the return of stranded Bengali migrant workers to the state, the Ministry of Railways in a series of tweets on Saturday evening said the state government is not approving enough trains for bringing them back.
The ministry said till Saturday morning, the West Bengal government had approved only two Shramik Special trains, from Ajmer Sharif and other from Ernakulam, for transporting the labourers back to their state.
"Indian Railways has so far run more than 300 trains mainly for states like UP, Bihar, Odisha, MP etc. But for WB till today morning we had received approval for only 2 Shramik special trains, 1 from Ajmer Sharif & other from Ernakulam," the Railway Ministry tweeted.
Indian Railways has so far run more then 300 trains mainly for states like UP, Bihar, Odisha, MP etc. But for WB till today morning we had received approval for only 2 Shramik special trains, 1 from Ajmer Sharif & other from Ernakulam.
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) May 9, 2020
On Saturday, the prevailing politics amid the Covid-19 crisis, witnessed a fresh turn as Union Home Minister Amit Shah sent a letter to the state government accusing it of not allowing trains to help migrant workers to return to their homes, receiving a counter-attack from the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
In the letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he accused the TMC government of not cooperating with the Centre to allow the trains carrying migrant labourers to enter the state.
The Railway Ministry further tweeted that the West Bengal government approved eight more Shramik Special trains only after the request of Home Minister Amit Shah.
"After request of Hon’ble HM, today afternoon WB has approved 2 trains from Punjab, 2 from TN, 3 from Karnataka & 1 from Telangana, which are being arranged," the ministry tweeted.
After request of Hon’ble HM, today afternoon WB has approved 2 trains from Punjab, 2 from TN, 3 from Karnataka & 1 from Telangana, which are being arranged.
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) May 9, 2020
The Railway Ministry pointed out that the state government had not approved any train from Maharashtra whereas it is awaiting approval of six trains from Mamata Banerjee government though 16 trains need to run from Maharashtra to transport the Bengali migrant workers back to their state.
However, WB has not approved any train from Maharashtra, while there is a requirement of 16 trains to WB and presently 6 requests are pending for which approval is still awaited from WB.
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) May 9, 2020
Accusing the Mamata Banerjee government, Shah had termed what he called non-cooperation of West Bengal as "injustice" for Bengali migrants stranded across the country.
"But we are not getting expected support from the West Bengal. The state government of West Bengal is not allowing the trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them," Shah wrote in the letter quoted by media.
Responding to the tweets of Ministry of Railways, West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay rejected the Central ministry's claim that the West Bengal government had approved new Shramik Special trains on Saturday and all the trains mentioned by it had been approved yesterday or before.
Ministry of Railways tweet is misleading and incorrect. All the trains mentioned in their tweet were approved and communicated to the concerned States on 8 May( yesterday) or before, no new decision in this regard has been taken today. Further decisions to follow in due course. https://t.co/Z1OylX4we5
— Home Secretary - Govt. of West Bengal (@HomeSecretaryWB) May 9, 2020
In an initial reaction on behalf of the TMC, the party's Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee tweeted in the morning, "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."
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