Covid-19 lockdown: Migrants in Gujarat pay Rs 700 for train ticket as BJP claims opposition charging labor

HIGHLIGHTS

• BJP claimed only opposition-led states were charging migrants to board trains
• Migrants travelling from Gujarat to UP, Jharkhand claimed they were made to buy ticket
• Centre said states only pay 15% of fare after Congress offered to pay for tickets

As increased criticism of Railways’ decision to charge migrant workers forced the Centre to beat a hasty retreat, migrants in Gujarat claimed they were made to pay for a train journey to Uttar Pradesh.

Migrant workers in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad told India Today TV that they were made to pay over Rs 600 for boarding a Shramik Express train to Uttar Pradesh. The migrants were made to pay the fare to travel from Nadiad to Gorakhpur.

Speaking with India Today TV, one migrant said, “I bought a train ticket from my own money. I paid Rs 690 for the ticket and in that got food and water on the train. I paid money at the spot where our details were being taken by authorities.”

Another worker from UP shared a similar story, “We deposited Rs 700 with authorities when our travel passes were made in Ahmedabad. The ticket cost Rs 635 and we were returned the rest of the money.”

Migrants who travelled from Surat to Jharkhand also claimed they bought their train tickets from their own money.

The laborers said that they were going back home in the absence of any money to sustain lives and hence could not afford to pay for the tickets. Yet many of them called for money from their homes or borrowed from their employers to pay for the ticket.

They were reportedly made to pay fares as high as Rs 700.

The revelation comes after the BJP claimed that only opposition-led states were charging migrants for ferrying them home.

WHAT THE ROW IS ABOUT

The railways rolled out the Shramik special trains on Friday to ferry migrants, stranded due to the Covid-19 lockdown, to their respective states.

The government came in for criticism after a circular from the railways said, “the local state government authority shall handover tickets to passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to the railways.”

A political slugfest broke out on Monday over the ‘homecoming’ of migrants after the Congress accused the government of charging money from stranded workers and offered to pay for their travel to native places, drawing a sharp retort from the BJP which said the railways was already bearing 85 per cent of the travel cost and charging only 15 per cent from the state governments.

Apart from the Congress, other opposition parties, including the CPI-M, the National Conference and the Loktantrik Janata Dal have criticised the Centre amidst reports that migrant workers are not able to afford to travel back to their native places.

Accusing the Central government and the Indian Railways of ignoring the demands made by the Congress for ensuring safe and free travel of migrant workers and labourers to their homes, Sonia Gandhi on Monday announced that party’s state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrants stranded at various places across the country as its “humble contribution” to show solidarity with these workers, who have contributed to nation’s development.

Other Congress leaders also joined Gandhi to attack the government, saying it brought back those stranded abroad free of cost while making these poor people pay. They also demanded that the ‘PM Cares Fund’ should be used for migrants.
“On one hand, the railways is charging ticket fares from laborers stranded in other states while on the other, the railway ministry is donating Rs 151 crore to the PM-Cares Fund. Just resolve this puzzle,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

The BJP hit back saying the railways have subsidized 85 percent of ticket fare for Shramik special trains being run to ferry migrant workers and the state government has to pay the remaining 15 percent.

The Centre said that for each ‘Shramik Express’, about 1,200 tickets are given by the railways to the state government concerned.

The state governments are supposed to clear the ticket price and hand over the tickets to workers.

The railways is charging the fare of sleeper class tickets in mail/express trains, plus a super-fast charge of Rs 30 and an additional charge of Rs 20 for the Shramik special trains.