New Delhi: Congress party, on Wednesday, demanded the resignation of Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, alleging him for being "distorting and less fair" with the migrant labourers over the issues pertaining to Shramik Special trains.
"It is now clear that the Central Government has been distorting, and being less than fair with the public of India, especially migrant labourers regarding rail travel," said Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, during a press conference.
Questioning the Railway Minister's claim regarding 85 per cent of subsidy being given to the state government on the cost of Shramik Special trains, Singhvi asked for the official order of the Ministry as clear evidence over the matter. He mentioned that as per the guidelines of the Ministry, either sending or receiving state governments will bear the cost of these trains.
He said, "This is a very serious point on which we need to pin down the Government. With the kind of clear contradictions, how is it possible that Railway Minister will not resign or be removed? One of the two must happen."
Singhvi also slammed Home Minister's statement over the matter, in which he said that "a few migrants had lost patience" and started walking during coronavirus lockdown even though the centre had provided "adequate facilities" for them to return home.
"The movement was started after the Government announced a national lockdown on a four-hour notice. While the trains were started at the end of April. Till today, people don't know about the fixed routes of these trains," said the Congress leader.
He also raised doubts over the number of deaths and delays of these train journeys, alleging that the figures can be "much more" than what has been reported.
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Quoting some reports, he said, "It is admitted that 81 deaths have happened and there are allegations that more deaths are not been declared. The family of the woman found dead on Muzaffarpur station platform, had clarified that she had no long term illness as claimed by the Railway Ministry."
He further stated, "Out of the 3,740 trains that run from May 1, about 40% were late for 8 hours, 421 trains were delayed for 10 hours, 373 were late by 10 to 24 hours, while 78 trains have been delayed by a day or more."
Meanwhile, the Railway Board Chairman, VK Yadav had clarified about the media reports suggesting delays in the train journey that only 1.85% or 71 trains of the total Shramik Specials were diverted from their routes which became the reason of their delays.
On the question from ETV Bharat regarding the deaths of migrant workers during their train journey, Singhvi replied that it is the prerogative of the Government to provide adequate facilities to the passengers who are already having any kind of illness during their journeys.
