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NEW DELHI: Railways Minister Piyush Goyal has called on all states to allow the operation of special migrant trains so that the stranded can get home in the next three to four days.
The appeal comes a day after the interior minister. Amit Shah written to west of bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allow such trains to run.
“According to the instructions of the Hon’ble PM @NarendraModi ji, Railways is fully prepared to run 300 Shramik special trains every day on short notice since the last six days.
“I call on all states to give permission to evacuate and bring back their stranded migrants so that we can take them home in the next 3-4 days,” Goyal tweeted Sunday.
On Saturday, the West Bengal government claimed it had authorized eight trains to take them to their migrant home. Four of these trains, he said, were to leave on Saturday, which did not happen.
Senior railway officials say the national carrier has the capacity to operate around 300 trains per day carrying around 20 lakh of migrants in a maximum of five days.
However, they said, state authorizations are not available, especially from states like West Bengal and Rajasthan, which have so far accepted the fewest such trains despite being a significant source of the migrant population.
As of May 10, a total of 366 “Shramik Special” trains have been operated across the country, of which 287 have reached their destinations and 79 trains are in transit.
These 287 trains were completed in various states like Andhra Pradesh (1 train), Bihar (87), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (sixteen), Madhya Pradesh (24), Maharashtra (3), Odisha (20), Rajasthan (4), Telangana (2), Uttar Pradesh (127), West Bengal (2).
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