States need to improve coordination: Cab secy
NEWDELHI: The Centre has asked state governments to be more proactive in reaching out to stranded migrant workers and improve last-mile coordination to ensure that the workers reach their destinations safely and aren’t driven by desperation to walk or use unauthorised transport to get home.
At a late-evening meeting between cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba and states on Sunday, the Centre’s top civil servant pointed out that while the Union government had started running special trains for migrant workers and issued detailed guidelines for their inter-state transport, the state from where the workers were setting out and the state they were heading to need to be more proactive in coordinating with each other, said people familiar with the matter.
If district administrations spot migrant workers walking on the roads, the authorities should relocate them to government-run shelters so that they can be sent back to their state of domicile by trains.
Gauba underlined that three types of information are crucial for migrant workers stranded by the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic; they need to know which train is headed to their destination, from which railway station it would depart and at what time.Lastmile coordination has to improve drastically so that migrant workers are made aware of these relief trains.
The cabinet secretary also stressed on the importance of district administrations disseminating accurate information to the migrant workers and ensure that they don’t start walking on the roads out of sheer desperation.
Gauba also said some states were taking too long in deciding on bringing back migrant labourers from other states. This unnecessary delay is resulting in great difficulties for workers and forcing them to walk or take unauthorised vehicles to reach home.
Railway board chairman Vinay Kumar Yadav said that Indian railways had been running special trains, at times within 24 hours of being requested by a state, assuring that running more trains would
RAJIV GAUBA STRESSED ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DIST ADMINISTRATIONS DISSEMINATING ACCURATE INFORMATION TO THE MIGRANT WORKERS AND ENSURE THAT THEY DON’T START WALKING ON THE ROADS
not be a problem for the staterun transporter to bring back migrant workers safely to their home states.
On May 8, 16 migrant labourers were crushed to death by a goods train in Maharashtra after they fell asleep on the tracks. More than 20 migrant labourers were killed and dozens injured after the truck they were travelling in collided with another vehicle in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh early on May 16. The trailer truck, carrying around 50 migrant labourers, was coming from Rajasthan when it collided with a van coming from Delhi in Auraiya.
Yadav also added that some states had pointed out that instead of point-to-point transfer of migrant workers, it will be better if the trains halt at a few stations in the receiving state as many workers may like to disembark in stations closer to their villages. He said that it will be done whenever a state asks for such halts.
Two states, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, maintained that their administrations had made sufficient arrangements for transporting stranded workers, but unauthorised buses or trucks coming were still plying from neighbouring states and carrying migrant labour. The two states asked for stricter vigil to ensure workers don’t risk their lives by piling onto overloaded three-wheelers or tractors on the highways.