New Delhi: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a letter to Union Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal, urging him to cater more trains to transport migrant workers who are stranded in various parts of the country amid nationwide lockdown.
In his letter, Chowdhury stated, "I do appreciate the enormous workload on your shoulder given at the present situation of mass transport in the wake of lockdown relaxation. But lakhs of people from my state West Bengal have been stranded like others and leading a harrowing life. I request you to get more trains to transport those unfortunate souls to their destinations."
Earlier on Monday, the Leader of Opposition of Lok Sabha slammed the Union Government for charging migrant workers for the train journey to their home States.
In his video, he said, "When the country has been looted by the unscrupulous traders, businessmen, wilful defaulters, they are roaming freely. But our stranded persons are not entitled to have a journey free of cost to their destinations."
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He asserted, "Government should know that during the excruciating period of lockdown, the money of all those standard persons has run out. Now, bereft of money, how will they be able to bear the cost of their train journey? but the inconsiderate government is not displaying any sincere effort to those unfortunate souls who have been stranded for long."
Congress leader also pointed out that the lockdown was imposed by this government so it is "incumbent" upon the Centre to extend the cooperation to those stranded people when the relaxation was announced.
He mentioned, "People of our country voluntarily have complied with all stipulations imposed by this government. Nevertheless, when the stranded people are in distress situation, it is the onus of the government to take care of them. Now, the government is playing an indifferent if not apathetic role towards them."
The announcement of Congress President to bear the cost of train travel of these migrant workers has drawn a strong rebuttal from the Center. Later, the Union Government gave a clarification that no train fare has been charged from workers as 85% of the fare will be borne by Indian Railways and rest 15% by the state governments.
It is to be noted that the Congress leader called the party chief announcement as a "Gesture of cooperation and humanity."
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