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Shramik special train service brings cheer to thousands of students stranded in Kota
A train from Kota, Rajasthan will bring students from Jharkhand among others home
The Centre on Friday allowed movement of stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims, tourists and others by rail, heeding to requests made by states that highlighted the difficulty in transporting a huge mass over long distances through road transport.
The decision by the home ministry is likely to provide a big relief to migrant workers that are stranded in several states but it would bring no less cheer to several thousand students stranded in different educational hubs like Kota in Rajasthan. Several of these students have run out of money and are said to be desperate to return home.
“Movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons, stranded at different places is also allowed by special trains to be operated by the ministry of railways,” the Friday order by the government said.
Out of the Shramik Special train services announced by the ministry also include a special between Kota and Ranchi which will run on May 1, the Labour Day. This train is likely to ferry students from Jharkhand stuck in Kota.
Close to ten thousand students from Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana are said to be stranded in the city known for its educational institutes that train students for engineering, medical, civil services and other competitive examinations.
Around 9,000 students enrolled in different coaching centres at Kota have already been transported in around 250 buses to different places in Uttar Pradesh in mid-April and another 3,000 were recently sent back on buses to West Bengal, some students were also sent back to Chhattisgarh,
Earlier in the day, the railways ministry had allowed a special train from Hyderabad with about 1200 migrant workers onboard to leave for Ranchi in Jharkhand. The ministry said that it could allow more such trains if the states sending and receiving migrant labourers expressed their willingness.
Several states including Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have requested central government for allowing limited interstate services to carry stranded people including migrants and students.
The railways has made it clear that all safety protocols including social distancing and necessary sanitization will have to be observed at both the originating station and the destination while the special services are in operation.
Close to 10 million migrant workers are said to be stranded in different states in relief camps, as per a rough estimate. Several states including Maharashtra have reported restlessness in the group and expressed fear that not allowing them to return to their home states could lead to a law and order situation which could be counter-productive to coronavirus containment efforts.
The migrant workers have been stranded since the announcement of the first phase of national lockdown, which started on March 25. Hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers lost their jobs and were dependent on government aid for food, shelter and sanitation. Several temporary relief camps were set up in different states to accommodate them but a big number of migrants, especially from the north in Delhi and Haryana decided to walk back to their homes in the absence of public transport.
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Several migrants were then sent home in buses arranged by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments but not before it resulted in chaos and mayhem on the streets of the capital and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where thousands of them gathered looking for transport.
