West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked the Railway Ministry not to send any special ‘Shramik’ trains for migrants to the state till 26 May in view of Cyclone Amphan.
“The cyclone was a natural calamity. West Bengal Chief Secretary wrote to me that restoration work is underway and they'll tell us soon when they'll be able to receive the trains. As soon as they give us a clearance, we'll run the trains to West Bengal,” Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kr Yadav said.
In a letter on 22 May, West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha told Chairman of Railway board VK Yadav that the state has been severely impacted by Super Cyclone Amphan on 20-21 May which caused extensive damage to the infrastructure.
“As the district administrations are involved in relief and rehabilitation works, it will not be possible to receive special trains for the next few days. It is therefore requested that no train should be sent to West Bengal till 26 May,” she said.
At least 86 people in West Bengal have died due to Cyclone Amphan. With normal life being disrupted by the region's worst weather disaster, the authorities have been scrambling to restore normalcy.
Days earlier, Banerjee had said that the state government will bear the entire cost of the movement of migrant workers by special states from other states to West Bengal. West Bengal has received the least number of Shramik Special trains since the service began to take migrant labourers back home amid the coronavirus lockdown.
In fact, Home Minister Amit Shah in a letter had alleged that Bengal was not allowing its migrants to return. Later, it was decided that the consent of the destination state was not required to operate these trains.
So far, over 2,000 Shramik Special trains have been operated since 1 May taking over 31 lakh migrant workers. Around 25 trains have terminated in Bengal so far.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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