Do not operate trains now: KCR
Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Monday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to restore passenger train operations in the country till the spread of Coronavirus was brought under control.
While putting forth his views in the video conference the Prime Minister had with all the Chief Ministers of the country on Monday, Mr Rao pointed out that a majority of Covid-19 cases were detected in big cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
In his view, allowing passenger trains would lead to chaos and make containment of the deadly disease more difficult.
“Under the prevailing circumstances, it will be difficult to monitor passengers travelling by train. Neither are we equipped to conduct tests for everyone nor can we keep them in quarantine facilities. It will be better if the Centre decides against operating passenger trains for now,” Mr Rao said.
He reiterated his demands for rescheduling of loans obtained by the state governments, increasing FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility
Under the prevailing circumstances, it will be difficult to monitor passengers travelling by train. Neither are we equipped to conduct tests for everyone nor can we keep them in quarantine facilities.
— K. CHANDRASHEKAR
RAO, Chief Minister
and Budget Management) limits and also facilitating transport of migrant workers to return to their home states.
He explained how state revenues had plunged due to the pandemic, with state governments in no position to repay their debts; he stressed the need to reschedule loans obtained by the states.
He sought an increase in the FRBM limits that would help states obtain more loans.
Mr Rao urged the Prime Minister to declare districts that do not have positive or active cases as green or orange zones, allowing the states to restore normalcy in such districts and the Centre to change the zones as per requests from the respective state governments without any delay.
He said efforts were underway to manufacture a vaccine for Coronavirus and several Hyderabad-based companies were making good progress in this direction.
The Chief Minister said he was optimistic that the vaccine would be developed in July or August in India, most probably in Hyderabad. He felt that the current situation in the country will change only after a vaccine is made available to the people.
All states should be sympathetic and humane towards migrant workers, he said, because “migrant labourers left their families in their native places to work in faraway locations for a livelihood. Under these trying times, they will definitely want to visit their families. If we allow them to travel to their native places, they will meet their families and return to work peacefully, failing which, there will be unrest.”
Appreciating the Centre’s decision to operate Shramik Special trains for transportation of migrant labourers, the chief minister said that the Telangana government was making travel arrangements for workers who wanted to visit their home states after taking all precautions.
He told the Prime Minister that workers from Bihar who visited their families had returned to Telangana state to work in rice mills.