Chhattisgarh CM writes to railways minister Piyush Goyal demanding 28 trains for migrant workers

As he welcomed the Centre’s decision to run the special trains for labourers stranded in other places, Baghel also requested to run these trains free of cost on humanitarian grounds.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has written to railways minister Piyush Goyal requesting him for 28 trains from various cities to help migrants from the state stranded in different parts of the country come home.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel wrote to railways minister Piyush Goyal (PTI)

The chief minister said in his letter that the fight against Covid-19 has gone intense across the country since the last few days. Chhattisgarh state is also fighting this pandemic courageously and has succeeded to a great extent in controlling the infection, he said.

“Presently, a large number of labourers from Chhattisgarh is stranded in various parts of the country. Based on the information received from helpline and other sources, nearly 1.17 lakh labourers of the state are stranded in 21 states and four union territories of the country,” Bhupesh Baghel wrote.

“After the transport facility is resumed, this number is expected to increase. And if we add the number of people apart from labourers, such as students, tourists etc, this number already escalates significantly,” he said.

“The letter issued by the Railway Board on May 1 states that fares have been decided for sleeper mail and express trains. This is not fair as the labourers and people stuck in other states are already distressed. They should be provided with this facility by the railways free of cost,” he wrote.

The chief minister said the state’s administrative system has been directed to coordinate with various states and chalk out an action plan for safe home-coming of labourers and other people stranded there.

“I request you to operate a sufficient number of trains for home-coming of labourers and citizens of Chhattisgarh in other states,” he said.

Baghel requested for seven trains from Jammu to Raipur-Bilaspur, three trains from Lucknow to Raipur-Bilaspur, two trains from Kanpur to Raipur-Bilaspur, one train from Chennai to Raipur-Bilaspur, one train from Bangalore to Raipur-Bilaspur, two trains from Pune to Raipur-Bilaspur and one train from Allahabad to Bilaspur.

He also asked for three trains from Delhi to Raipur-Bilaspur, three trains from Hyderabad-Secunderabad to Raipur-Bilaspur, one train from Vishakhapatnam to Raipur, from Surat-Ahmedabad to Raipur, one train from Kolkata to Raipur, one train from Jaipur to Raipur and one train from Patna to Durg, in his letter.