Row over migrants’ rail fare as Cong offers to foot the bill

NEW DELHI: A fierce political war broke out over the issue of train fare for the migrant workers returning home, with the Congress declaring that the party and its state committees would pay the fare to enable workers to return and accusing the Centre of being insensitive to their plight. The Union government and the BJP said that the railways was bearing 85% of the fare cost, and state governments had to pay 15%, thus allowing migrants to go back home free of cost.

While the government also claimed it had never spoken of charging stranded migrants, and said the onus rested on state governments, the Opposition rebutted the assertion, citing government orders which asked state governments to collect fares from migrants and hand them over to railways. Experts pointed out that Indian Railways does provide an in-built subsidy for train journeys, which is the highest in sleeper class, the mode of travel in special trains, but also underlined that the government had to incur higher expenditure because of additional costs currently. The controversy involves an estimated 10 million migrant workers stranded after the imposition of a lockdown on March 25. Many of them lost their jobs because of the lockdown and the suspension of all economic activities aimed at halting the spread of Covid-19. In the absence of public transport, many tried to walk back home but were turned back at state borders and housed in shelters. Last week, the Centre finally released protocol for their movement by bus. Soon after, railways announced it would run special trains for them.

When the special trains first began operating on Friday, migrants travelling from Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka and some other states were charged rail fares for their journey back home. On Monday, officials said states including Rajasthan, Telangana and Gujarat were paying for the tickets, even as the BJP said that its government in Madhya Pradesh was also bearing the expense.

On Monday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the plight of migrant workers and their desperate attempts to return home was the biggest human tragedy since the Partition.