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Interior Minister Amit Shah (L) and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (R)
NEW DELHI: Tensions between the Center and the West Bengal government flared up again with the Interior Minister Amit Shah writing to the prime minister Mamata Banerjee noting the state’s failure to arrange for the return of migrant workers from the state and Trinamool responding accusing Shah of spreading lies.
Shah said that although West Bengal migrants working in other states are eager to return home, and the Center and states where they are stranded have made arrangements, including trains to send them back, there is no response from the state government.
The dispute is the most recent after the Center and the state clashed over allegations that a state committee was manipulating Covid’s case numbers and claims of non-cooperation with core teams to control the disease.
As of late Saturday night, the railway ministry tweeted that Indian Railways has so far run more than 300 trains mainly for states like UP, Bihar, Odisha and MP, but from West Bengal until Saturday morning “we had received the approval of only 2 special Shramik-1 trains by Ajmer Sharif and another by Ernakulam ”.
The railways said that after Shah’s letter, West Bengal approved three trains from Karnataka, two from Punjab and Tamil Nadu and one from Telangana, which are being organized. “However, WB has not approved any trains from Maharashtra, while there is a requirement of 16 trains to WB and there are currently 6 pending applications for which approval is still awaited.”
Trinamool responded, with Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien saying: “Retract or apologize. It is part of the interior minister’s DNA to play politics during a national epidemic. He sleeps if nothing else. He quoted letters written by the chief secretary from Bengal, Rajiva Sinha, from May 3 to 7 to other states to organize the return of migrant workers.
Other TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee He said in a tweet: “A Home Secretary who fails to fulfill his duties during the crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to trick people with a lot of lies!” In a reference to the deaths of 16 migrants who slept on the train tracks in Aurangabad, he added: “Ironically, he is talking about the same people who have literally been left behind by their own government.”
Just two days ago, the congressional leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary had a discussion with Shah on the issue of the return of migrants from West Bengal. “He told me that he has been continuously asking the West Bengal government how many trains they need to bring migrant workers back, but until two days ago the state government had not sent a list,” ANI quoted Chowdhary as saying.
The Bengal government announced eight special trains on Friday to bring back more than 31,000 workers from Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka, although the Center contested when the requests arrived.
“We have already organized special trains to bring migrants back. One of those trains will arrive in Malda on Sunday. The state also plans to help Bengal pilgrims stranded in Mathura, Varanasi and Vrindavan return to their homes, “said state home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.
“Our chief secretary is in constant dialogue with his counterparts in other states to speed up the process,” Bandyopadhyay said, adding that the state government had already brought in thousands of migrants from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Sikkim.
The state government, he said, also agreed to help bring the stranded Bengali people back abroad. “The chief secretary has informed the Center that we have a standard operating procedure for institutional quarantine to care for these people,” Bandyopadhyay said.
However, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said: “The state government should have requisitioned more trains to bring back stranded migrant workers in other states. You should also organize your food and shelter if you are forced to stay there. The BJP state will organize the food if the government does nothing. ”
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