Do not charge railway fare from stranded migrant workers, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray urges Centre

CM Thackeray tweeted the request late on Sunday mentioning that the labourers are from an extremely poor background and the Central govenrment must keep this in mind. “They have been financially affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Taking a humanitarian approach, the Railways should not charge them ticket fare,” he said.

The government also made it clear that no special train for stranded migrant labourers will leave from Mumbai as the city has several containment zones. It is to be noted that Maharashtra has been sending hundreds of migrant labourers home on special trains running from Nashik and Bhiwandi in the last few days. There are thousands of migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Karnataka, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh who are stranded in different parts of Maharashtra.

As per the Maharashtra government, around five lakh labourers were provided shelter at different shelter homes across the state for the last 40 days and the state government will take proper care of these migrant labourers till they are sent home.

Meanwhile, CM Thackeray has also ordered the officials to update the list of migrant labourers in shelter homes and remain ready in case special trains are started from Pune, Mumbai or Thane by the Centre to take migrant labourers home.

Several migrants were stranded in places across the country since the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 25 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of coronavirus in India. Many migrants were seen even attempting to walk home hundreds of kilometres to reach their home.