Ready to pay for 50 trains: Tejashwi slams Nitish over ticket fare row

The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD) Saturday accused the Nitish Kumar government of ignoring the plight of migrants following the controversy over Delhi chief

The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD) Saturday accused the Nitish Kumar government of ignoring the plight of migrants following the controversy over Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal seeking reimbursement from the Bihar government for paying the train ticket fare of passengers coming from Delhi to Muzaffarpur.

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In a series of tweets, Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav thanked the Delhi CM for paying the ticket fare of the migrants who reached the state by Shramik Special on May 9 and slammed the state government for dilly dallying on making advance payment for the ticket fare.

“ Thank you so much @ Arvind Kejriwal ji. We are sorry for the insensitivity shown by the Bihar government. As a responsible opposition we offer our support in terms of financial contribution in taking back migrant Bihari workforce, Please let us know the modalities of transferring the money,”(sic) Tejashwi posted in a tweet, taking potshots at the state government’s reported stand that no reimbursement would be made to the Delhi government against ticket fare of the migrants.

The Bihar government and Delhi government has come to loggerheads over the ticket fare payment of the migrant labourers who returned by the special train to Muzaffarpur from Delhi. While Delhi government claimed it had made advance payment as ticket fare for the special train and sought reimbursement, the state government has asserted that the reimbursement on the same would be done at the quarantine centres on their return as per the MHA guidelines.“Our party is ready to pay the ticket fare of passengers for 50 trains . We stand by words. The Bihar government should also make public how it will reimburse the train fare cost to Delhi government,” Tejashwi said.

However, Tejashwi said that the latest episode of friction between Bihar and Delhi government has only exposed how the Nitish Kumar dispensation is not sympathetic towards the plight of lakhs of migrants stranded in various states and requesting for special trains at the bare minimum is a formality.