New Delhi: Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday said that the party would bear the cost for the rail travel of migrant workers and labourers as she slammed the Centre for double standards over helping stranded Indians amid the coronavirus crisis.
In a statement, Sonia Gandhi described the situation as a "tragedy with a massive human cost" and added that because of the Centre’s four-hour notice of the lockdown necessitated due to the coronavirus, workers and migrant labourers were denied the opportunity to return to their homes.
“Post the partition of 1947, this is the first time India witnessed a tragedy with such a massive human cost as thousands of migrant workers and labourers were forced to walk home several hundred kilometres on foot- without food, without medicines, without money, without transportation, without anything except for the desire to return to their families and loved ones.”
She said that the Congress party had repeatedly asked for the provision of safe and free rail travel for migrant workers and labourers to their home-towns, but their demands had been ignored by the central government and rail ministry.
“The Indian National Congress has, therefore, taken a decision that every Pradesh Congress Committee shall bear the cost for the rail travel of every needy worker and migrant labourer and shall take necessary steps in this regard,” the statement said.
It added that this would be the party’s “humble contribution” in service of migrant workers and to stand "shoulder to shoulder in solidarity" with them.
Questioning the central government’s handling of the situation, Gandhi said that it was disturbing that the migrants were being charged for the train tickets in this hour of crisis.
“But what is the responsibility of our Government? Even today, lakhs of workers and migrant labourers are languishing in different parts of the country and wish to return to their homes and families but there is neither adequate money nor provision for free transport. What is particularly disturbing is that the Central Government and the Rail Ministry are charging them for train tickets in this hour of crisis,” the statement read.
The Congress matriarch further criticised the Centre and asked that if the government could recognise its responsibility by arranging free air travel for citizens stranded abroad, then why the migrant workers, couldn’t be “given a fraction of the same courtesy?”
“When our Government can recognise its responsibility by arranging free air travel for our citizens stranded abroad when the Government can spend nearly Rs 100 crores on transport and food etc. for just one public programme in Gujarat, when the rail ministry has the largesse to donate Rs 151 crores to the PM’s Corona fund, then why can’t these essential members of our nation’s fabric be given a fraction of the same courtesy, especially free rail travel, at this hour of acute distress?” the statement added.
Meanwhile, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, also slammed the Railways Ministry for charging the fare of tickets from the stranded migrant workers.
एक तरफ रेलवे दूसरे राज्यों में फँसे मजदूरों से टिकट का भाड़ा वसूल रही है वहीं दूसरी तरफ रेल मंत्रालय पीएम केयर फंड में 151 करोड़ रुपए का चंदा दे रहा है। जरा ये गुत्थी सुलझाइए! pic.twitter.com/qaN0k5NwpG — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 4, 2020
"On the one hand, the Railways is charging ticket fares from the labourers stranded in different states, while on the other hand, the Ministry of Railways is giving Rs 151 crore to the PM Care Fund. Just solve this mystery."
The Indian Railways had issued a set of guidelines for Shramik Special trains being run to ferry the migrants stranded across the country, saying the trains will ply only if they have 90 per cent occupancy and the "states should collect the ticket fare", inviting criticism for charging for their services.
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