Only 71 of 4,040 migrant trains diverted: Minister

SHRAMIK SPECIALS Rejects Oppn charge, says all special trains reached their destinations

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In such adverse circumstances, moving 54 lakh people, with all the associated health protocols, is certainly not an ordinary operation. And in the extraordinary circumstances, I will say that the railway employees put in their heart and soul...

nNEWDELHI: Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday rejected allegations that special trains meant to ferry migrant workers back home were mismanaged and some of them took wrong routes and said every single train reached its desired destination, with only a fraction diverted, and in a five-day period that saw a rush of trains headed for East Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to avert congestion.

Several Opposition leaders, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have alleged that the trains, labelled “Shramik Specials”, were running late by days. Others have alleged that a large number of trains was diverted. According to data collected by the Railway Protection Force and reported by HT, around 80 travellers on these have died, although, to be sure, some of them, according to the force’s own report, had pre-existing health conditions.

The railway minister said the allegations on widespread delays and diversions were “completely baseless and wrong”. “Almost all trains up to May 19 were before time... (So far) only 71 out of 4,040, which is 1.75% trains, were diverted. Charges like ‘kahin se nikle, kahin chale gaye’ (they left from somewhere and went off somewhere else), all that is nonsense. Every train reached the destination, only took a slightly longer route to ease the congestion and keep the flow of trains running. Otherwise, I would have to stop the operation,” Goyal told Hindustan Times in an interview. It was only between May 20 and May 25 that a rush caused a congestion and resulted in diversions and delays, he added. And no train has taken seven or nine days to reach its destination as is being claimed, the minister said.

So far, 4,040 Shramik Specials – necessitated by a national lockdown brought on by the coronaboard

PIYUSH GOYAL, Railway minister

virus disease (Covid-19) – have carried more than 5.4 million passengers. The minister said almost 80% of the trains were travelling to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, leading to congestion on the limited routes. And stations which received around three trains a day were being asked to deal with many more.

On being asked why the special trains for migrant workers began operating only by May 1, Goyal said: “The purpose of the lockdown was containment and the idea was that we have to break the coronavirus chain and, therefore, starting the trains any earlier would have been counterproductive. The idea was that all migrants should stay where they are... We also requested states to ensure that they were well-looked after.”

“It needed that five weeks at least to break that coronavirus chain but then, we found that people are getting very anxious... We decided on May 1 to start this and we continued to ramp it up,” the Union minister said.

The Indian Railways said on Sunday it will begin operation of 200 special trains from June 1 and more than 145,000 passengers will travel on the first day as the lockdown measures are relaxed over the coming weeks.

Goyal said that the reasons for delays of most of the special migrant trains were not the journeys, but “at the end”. “There were only seven places where maximum trains were headed... Trains were just bunched up. Local administrations were taking precautions, taking three hours for each train or two hours for each train to disembark. Fewer platforms were there. So the bunching and delay happened because of the congestion at the end...”

He said beyond a point, states demanded more stoppages for the trains that were initially origin-to-destination. They couldn’t bring people to the stations in time, the minister said, adding that this caused bunching up. “To ease that congestion, we took a considered view and diverted 71 trains.”

These trains, he said, took a little longer to reach their destinations but that they took “seven to nine days” was a gross exaggeration. “No train took seven or nine days,” he said.

The minister added that despite the diversions, and eateries being closed due to the lockdown, the railways provided food and water, five-six times in some journeys, in the diverted trains. He said 11.9 million meals were provided by the railways in addition to 5.4 million of them provided by the states at the point of embarkation. The railways also provided 15 million water bottles other than those provided by the states. And the states also provided food when the migrants disembarked, Goyal pointed out.

On the issue of deaths – there have been about 80 deaths on the Shramik Special trains between May 9 and May 27, according to data from the Railway Protection Force – Goyal said they found that in all cases, there were existing ailments. “Some of the stories are sought to be portrayed as if people died of hunger or starvation. I can say with confidence that no one died of hunger,” he said, adding that in long-distance travel, some deaths occur even in normal operations.

He added that Railways has been transparent about the deaths, and insisted on compiling a list of them, and finding out causes even as news reports suggested that “eight or nine migrants” died on trains. The real number has emerged only because of this, he suggested.

“We are very concerned... My heart goes out to the families (of those who have died),” the minister said.

Goyal said some of the deaths could have been prevented with better medical screening but the doctors who were dealing with a heavy flow of people could not be blamed. He added that 36 pregnant women who were expecting to deliver were allowed to travel in the trains and they went into labour in the course of the journey. “They should have never have been on the train.”

Praising the efforts of railway employees across the country, the minister said: “In such adverse circumstances, moving 54 lakh people, with all the associated health protocols, is certainly not an ordinary operation. And in the extraordinary circumstances, I will say that the railway employees put in their heart and soul... They are as much frontline corona warriors...”

The minister said the special trains will run for as long as there is a demand from states. “We have been asking states... The current demand today is 250-300 trains. Maximum demand is now to West Bengal and to Odisha.” But the flow is also starting in the reverse direction, he suggested.

Madhya Pradesh

8,089 198 4,842

Dadar & Nagar Haveli

2

Chhattisgarh

492 45

Maharashtra

67,655 2,487 29,329

Telangana

2,698 199 1,428

Goa

71

Karnataka

3,221 0 1 0 114

is happening”.

He said differences were being addressed through interaction between military commanders, guided by established protocols on management of borders between the two countries.

The video shows furious Indian soldiers and Indo-tibetan Border Police personnel chasing away Chinese troops who appear to have left their vehicle, a Humvee knockoff, behind. In the video, a Chinese soldier is seen lying on the ground bleeding from his head, while an Indian soldier covers him with a shield to avoid further injuries in the midst of the violent confrontation.

“It is important for local commanders on both sides to ensure passions do not run out of control. Things can’t be allowed to go from bad to worse,” said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd).

Military commanders have been talking almost daily to break the stalemate. Soldiers of the two countries are eyeball-to-eyeball at four locations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso.

Anand said the army strongly condemned attempts to sensationalise issues impacting national security. “The media is requested not to air visuals that are likely to vitiate the current situation on the borders,” he added.

China has marshalled close to 5,000 soldiers and deployed tanks and artillery guns on its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh sector where India has also sent military reinforcements and matched the neighbour’s military moves, as reported by Hindustan Times on May 26. trast to consecutive phases of the lockdown which was first been declared on March 25. The government announced that in the first phase of unlocking India, places of worship, shopping malls, and hotels and restaurants can open from June 8; in the next phase, state governments will consult various stakeholders on the opening of educational institutions; and in the third phase, the government will assess and decide on the opening up of international air travel, metro services, cinema halls and other activities. The new guidelines also remove restrictions on inter- and intra-state travel.

In his radio address, coming just a day after he completed the first year of his second term in power, PM Modi said India has been able to contain the spread of infection and keep the death toll relatively low, compared to other countries, but cautioned against complacence. “Covid-19 is very much there and we cannot be complacent. The road ahead is a long one. We are fighting a pandemic about which little was previously known,” the PM said.

Experts agreed with the PM’S note of caution and believe that the easing of restrictions — while necessary to mitigate the economic crisis — can lead to an increase in cases and the spread of the disease.

T Jacob John, former virology head, CMC, Vellore, said: “Now is the time to up your guard against the disease, and strictly follow preventive measures such as wearing of mask while stepping out, social distancing, hand hygiene etc. With lockdown being lifted the risk of disease transmission also increases as there will be greater public movement.”

India ended Sunday with 190,533 cases and 5,328 deaths. The fatality rate in India remains much lower than the global fatality rate, and experts suggest that the lockdown, extended thrice, has pushed back the peak of infections, giving the country time to strengthen its health care infrastructure.

Modi expressed his appreciation for the efforts made by both individuals and organisations in helping those in need during the pandemic and its aftermath. No section has been spared the impact of the pandemic, he said.

“However, the worst affected are the poor and the labourers. Their pain, their agony, and their ordeal can’t be expressed in words,” he said.

Millions of migrant workers in the cities, fearing the loss of their livelihoods, have headed home in states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, braving hunger, thirst and heat, in an exodus triggered by the enforcement of the lockdown. Indian Railways is running special trains to transport them to their home states.

The PM said the railways too has become a front line worker in the fight against the coronavirus disease. “The Centre, states, local bodies are all working day and night. The way our Railway forces are making efforts round-theclock, they are in a way front line corona warriors transporting safely millions of migrant labourers to their homes; arranging for their food, managing quarantine centres in every district and arrangements for testing and treatment for everyone. All these efforts are going on continuously and at a large scale,” he said.

But Congress leader Kapil Sibal criticised the Centre, saying the government has not able to handle the migrant crisis. He said “the government’s social distancing with people has increased so much that it does not know what is happening on the ground and how to address the problems faced by people, especially the poor”.

In his address, the PM also said the situation should serve as a lesson for India to make provisions for the future. He cited the situation of workers in the eastern states as a case in point, and said the problems suffered by the poor during the crisis had been exacerbated by the lack of development in the region.

The PM reiterated his message of the need for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) and said many problems being confronted now would not have arisen if the villages and towns of the country were self-reliant.

“At some places work in skill mapping of the labourers is taking place, at some places startups are being encouraged, a migration commission has been commissioned somewhere and the Centre will also help open up opportunities for employment, self-employment and small-scale industries in villages. These decisions are aimed at resolving the crisis and building a self-reliant India,” he said.

Experts believe that while this does present an opportunity for northern and eastern Indian states, which have received the maximum number of migrants, ensuring jobs for them will be very challenging. Ajay Kumar, associate professor of development education at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said: “It is a structural issue. This is a problem of regional imbalances. Self-reliance doesn’t exist in a vacuum,andself-reliancecannot be created only by political will. A comprehensive approach is required to resolve this issue — which should be a combination of social, educational, political and economic development of the region.”

The PM also urged people to tap the benefits offered by yoga; several international leaders have shown interest in knowing more about ayurveda and yoga in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, he said. “We have to explore yoga for community, immunity and unity,” he said.

With World Environment Day coming up on June 5, the PM also said it was imperative to pay attention to biodiversity and pay attention to the conservation of water. “In some parts of eastern India, we witnessed destruction caused by cyclone (Amphan) …The way people of West Bengal and Odisha showed courage in dealing with the situation is commendable. In this hour of crisis, the country is standing by the side of people of these two states” he said.