HYDERABAD: Even as the Centre and state governments quibble over who should bear the expenses of the “Shramik Special” trains, the Telangana government decided late on Monday evening to send migrant workers back to their home states. The state government has asked the South Central Railway (SCR) to run 40 special trains daily for a week from Tuesday.
Sources said that the Telangana government will be paying the Railways for running the trains for the time being.
“The special trains will be run from various places such as Hyderabad, Khammam, Damarcherla and Ramagundam to Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states,” chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced.
Officials said that thousands of migrant workers were thronging police stations, urging officers to send them home ever since the first Shramik train was run on May 1. The large presence of restless workers was also leading to law and order problem at many places, like the trouble at the IIT campus recently.
Telangana has more than four lakh migrant workers in different districts at present. Sources said that as governments in the workers’ home states were not responding to requests to make transport arrangements, KCR spoke to his counterparts in Jharkhand and Odisha and explained the situation to them.
Sources added that many states were reluctant to foot the bill of the trains needed to send back the workers. Also, there was little clarity over some of the other guidelines. “Some states enquired about their workers. Many others haven’t even approached us. Instead of asking states to pay transport charges, the Centre should have arranged free trains,” an official involved in coordinating with migrant workers told TOI.
After the Congress said it would pay the train fares of the migrants returning home, the Centre announced that 85% of the cost was being borne by the Railways while the states had to take on just 15% of the burden.
Sources said that the Telangana government will be paying the Railways for running the trains for the time being.
“The special trains will be run from various places such as Hyderabad, Khammam, Damarcherla and Ramagundam to Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states,” chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced.
Officials said that thousands of migrant workers were thronging police stations, urging officers to send them home ever since the first Shramik train was run on May 1. The large presence of restless workers was also leading to law and order problem at many places, like the trouble at the IIT campus recently.
Telangana has more than four lakh migrant workers in different districts at present. Sources said that as governments in the workers’ home states were not responding to requests to make transport arrangements, KCR spoke to his counterparts in Jharkhand and Odisha and explained the situation to them.
Sources added that many states were reluctant to foot the bill of the trains needed to send back the workers. Also, there was little clarity over some of the other guidelines. “Some states enquired about their workers. Many others haven’t even approached us. Instead of asking states to pay transport charges, the Centre should have arranged free trains,” an official involved in coordinating with migrant workers told TOI.
After the Congress said it would pay the train fares of the migrants returning home, the Centre announced that 85% of the cost was being borne by the Railways while the states had to take on just 15% of the burden.
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