Pradhan seeks special trains for migrant workers to return to places of work

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written to railway minister Piyush Goyal seeking Shramik special trains to states like Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra for the smooth return of migrant workers to their workplaces

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written to railway minister Piyush Goyal seeking Shramik special trains to states like Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra for the smooth return of migrant workers to their workplaces with the resumption of normalcy and the lifting of the nationwide lockdown imposed in March to check the Covid-19 pandemic spread.

Migrants head to board buses at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Gurugram, to reach the railway station for catching a Shramik Special train to Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, in June this year. (PTI)

The Centre introduced Shramik special trains to help migrant workers, who were left jobless by the pandemic, to return to their homes this summer after tens of thousands of them were forced to walk amid the suspension of transportation services due to the lockdown.

“There was a mass exodus of migrant workers from states like Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra to Odisha in the wake of Covid-19 lockdown. These workers have highlighted their plights due to the unavailability of livelihood options and difficulty in travelling back to their workplace for re-joining work. Even though some employers are willing to offer bus transport service from Odisha, a long and arduous journey via road is neither feasible nor safe for such long distances due to prevailing monsoon conditions,” Pradhan wrote.

Pradhan’s letter came two days after eight migrant workers, who were on their way from Ganjam in Odisha to Surat, were killed and 20 others injured when the bus they were traveling on collided head-on with a truck in Chhattisgarh. The bus was carrying about 60 migrant workers.

After the lockdown was announced, over 926,000 migrant workers returned to Odisha after losing their livelihood in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bengal, Delhi, and Haryana. Of these, 358,000 workers returned on 256 Shramik Special trains while the rest came by buses, cars, taxis, and bicycles.

The returnees included 550,000 unskilled workers.