Railways levied ₹50 surcharge on each ticket for migrants: Maharashtra Congress

Mumbai Maharashtra Congress has alleged that the Union railway ministry has levied a surcharge of ₹50 on each ticket for migrants who have been travelling back to

Mumbai Maharashtra Congress has alleged that the Union railway ministry has levied a surcharge of ₹50 on each ticket for migrants who have been travelling back to their home states from Maharashtra. Calling it “insensitive and inhuman”, the Congress has also dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to prove its claim of the central government bearing 85% of the train fare for the migrants or apologise.

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Maharashtra Congress’s general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant, in a press conference on Monday, presented a letter written by the Railway Board on May 1, which directs the zonal railway offices to levy the surcharge. The letter, signed by the director of passenger marketing, has stated that the superfast charges of ₹30 and additional charges of ₹20 are levied on the tickets issued for the Shramik Special trains.

“Levying surcharge on migrants’ tickets over the actual fare is shameful. This is nothing but ‘Corona Tax’ being recovered from the helpless migrants who have been unemployed from the past two months and are running out of money,” Sawant said.

He added that BJP leaders’ claim that the central government was bearing 85% of the cost of the railway fare for the migrants was false. “It is a false claim by BJP leaders, including Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil. I dare Patil to prove the claim or apologise before the people of the state,” he said.

BJP has however, said that the ruling parties in Maharashtra are misguiding the people. Claiming that he is not aware of any such surcharge being levied, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, “The Railway Board is charging 15% of the actual cost of running special trains from the state government. The state government and Congress are misleading people that they have been paying the complete fare of the tickets for migrants. While levelling allegations against BJP and the Centre, the Congress should tell the people of Maharashtra why have they been charging ₹14 per km for the special buses run by the state transport corporation during the lockdown when the actual ticket rate fare is much lesser.”

A day earlier, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh too, had claimed that the entire cost of the railway fare for the migrants has been borne by the state government. He also said that the state has made an allocation of ₹25 crore for the purpose after the Centre turned down their request of making the trains available free of cost.

BJP to start Maharashtra Bachao protest from today

The Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party has signalled to start a state-wide campaign, ‘Maharashtra Bachao’ against the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government from Tuesday to protest against the administration’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. State party chief Chandrakant Patil and leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, who held a meeting via audio bridge with senior leaders on Monday, also demanded that the state announce an independent package for daily wage earners to give them relief.

BJP leaders will give a statement to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and district collectors to “awaken the state government’’ on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, lakhs of party workers will stand outside their homes with slates and hoardings to protest against the administration’s ineffectual governance, said a communication from the BJP.

“The coronavirus pandemic in the state and Mumbai has gone out of hand. Nobody seems to be in charge. Those who want to get admitted are not getting hospital beds. There are several unaddressed issues of migrant labourers, the poor and the farmers,’’ said Fadnavis.

He added that while this is not time to do politics, the state government needs to be awakened from its slumber and made to see the woes of its people.