‘Acted after Amit Shah’s letter’: Railways counter Bengal’s claim on migrants’ return

The Ministry of Railways on Saturday night rebutted Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress’ claim that the state had made arrangements for eight trains to bring back migrants from four other states that are scheduled to reach Bengal over the next three days.

Trinamool Congress and the state government made these claims after union home minister Amit Shah wrote to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing the state of not supporting the Centre in allowing Bengal’s migrant workers stranded in other states to reach Bengal.

“Amit Shah’s letter is full of outright lies. Two trains have already reached and eight more are expected to reach Bengal in the coming three days. Overall, 80,000 people have already been brought back using various means of transport,” TMC Rajya Sabha leader and national spokesperson Derek O’Brien said on Saturday.

TMC also alleged that the union home minister was deliberately spreading lies to play politics during an epidemic.

O’Brien presented a document showing two trains each from Punjab and Tamil Nadu and three from Karnataka in the draft schedule of special trains, as of May 8, which will reach seven districts of Bengal between May 10 and 12, carrying 12,714 passengers altogether. Another train is scheduled to arrive in Malda district on May 10, carrying 1,721 passengers from Telangana.

The Railways, however, contested TMC’s claims in a series of three tweets on Saturday night.

“Indian Railways has so far run more than 300 trains mainly for states like UP, Bihar, Odisha, and MP etc. But for WB till today morning we had received approval for only 2 Shramik special trains, 1 from Ajmer Sharif and the other from Ernakulam,” the Railways said, adding, “After the request of Hon’ble HM, this afternoon WB has approved 2 trains from Punjab, 2 from TN, 3 from Karnataka and 1 from Telangana, which are being arranged.”

“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,” the ministry added.

The Congress, meanwhile, has added a twist to the ongoing political blame-game by supporting the Centre’s version. “The chief minister has given permission to eight more trains after Shah wrote to the state,” alleged Congress’ leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is an MP from Berhampore in West Bengal.

Facing the ire of the BJP, the Congress and the Left parties, Mamata Banerjee’s TMC on Saturday said that the state had a “staggered plan” to bring back migrant workers stranded in other states. The state would also allow residents stranded abroad to return.

A senior government official said that the state would not accept a large number of people from outside at one go. “It would not be right to accept more than 4,000-5,000 people on a single day. We are making plans for every single one of them depending on his or her residential address and health status. We can’t do something that could lead to a steep rise in the state’s Covid-19 graph,” a top official of the state government said, requesting anonymity.

Over the last week, 13 of Bengal’s 23 districts reported new Covid-19 cases.

At the state secretariat, home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said that pilgrims stranded in Haridwar, Dwarka and other religious places would also be brought back in batches. “Many people from the neighbouring states of Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand came to the state borders by walking there. We made all arrangements to safely send them home,” Bandyopadhyay said.

O’Brien said that the state had a seven-stage plan to bring back migrants. “We are doing it in a staggered manner. Everyone stranded in other states would be brought back but in batches. The prime minister announced the lockdown without an iota of planning. We don’t want to bring the migrant workers back without having an elaborate plan,” he said.