78% of Shramik trains from Maharashtra sent to UP, Bihar

As many as 621 or around 78% of the total 799 special Shramik trains that departed from Maharashtra till May 30 were destined for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of these,

As many as 621 or around 78% of the total 799 special Shramik trains that departed from Maharashtra till May 30 were destined for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of these, 426 trains went to Uttar Pradesh (UP) and 195 departed for Bihar.

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Immediately after migrants living in slums at Bandra took to the streets on April 14, demanding transport to their home states, the state government wrote to the Centre for the special trains. The demand was approved in the last week of April and the first Shramik special train departed from Nashik on May 1.

Since then, 799 trains have departed to 22 Indian states, transporting 11.54 lakh migrants.

Around 9.13 lakh migrants are estimated to have gone back to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and many more are still on the waiting list for Shramik trains. Most of the trains have been operating to Jaunpur and Gorakhpur districts in UP and Darbhanga in Bihar.

“At least 20 lakh people are expected to have gone back to their respective states from Maharashtra over the last month. Thousands more have registered with the authorities, mostly in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Most of them are from these two states,” said an official from the state government.

Ramji Tiwari, former head of the department of Hindi at the University of Mumbai, said that most of north Indians living in Mumbai are from eastern parts of UP. “There are at least 25 lakh north Indians living in Mumbai. Most of them are from UP’s eastern districts like Gajhipur, Baliya, and Jaunpur, which are comparatively dense in population and less developed. The migrants have left Mumbai in distress after they lost their jobs and were finding it difficult to survive. It is unlikely that they will return to the city anytime soon,” he said.

The Maharashtra government had made a budgetary allocation of ₹100 crore for the Shramik train services. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that the state has already spent around ₹90 crore on train fare.

At present, 37,994 migrants workers are living at various camps set up across the state. Before Shramik trains were arranged, the number of migrants living at these camps was more than 5.70 lakh in the last week of April.