Lakhs of migrant workers were left stranded, without jobs as lockdown started on March 25.
A train transporting migrants stranded by the nationwide lockdown left Telangana for Jharkhand early this morning, carrying 1,200 people from Lingampally in the southern state to Jharkhand's Hatia district. The 24-coach train, which normally seats 72 people in a compartment, contained only 54 people in accordance with social distancing guidelines.
Shortly after the Railways Ministry issued a clarification stating this was a "one-off special train... run on request of the State Government of Telangana".
Earlier today Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren tweeted to confirm the centre had accepted his request to run a special train to return people to the state, saying: "The central government accepted our demand to bring back workers. We immediately started work to bring them back safely".
"Just as students studying in other states are important to us, similarly migrant workers from the state are equally important. Security of each Jharkhand is your government's priority," Mr Soren added.
The move to send migrants home by train comes a day after the centre permitted migrants, students and other people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus infection to return home, nearly five weeks after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to break the chain of transmission of the virus.
Following the centre's order several states, including Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and some southern states, asked for trains, citing distance and the logistics of bus travel. In its order the centre had said people should go by road and states should make transportation arrangements.
Lakhs of migrant workers and others had been left stranded in states far from their own after the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25.
As economic activity came to a sudden stop during the lockdown, thousands were left without jobs, money or shelter and, with interstate transport shut, had no choice but to walk hundreds, often thousands, of kilometres home, triggering a humanitarian crisis.
