Centre allows hiring private buses to ferry migrants home on arriving in 'Shramik' trains

In a bid to ease returning migrants, the Centre on Thursday, has allowed states and Union Territories to hire private buses to ferry passengers who were arriving at railway stations via special 'Shramik' trains to their homes. The Ministry has stated that this provision is allowed due to prevalent lockdown in several zones and due to non-availability of public/private transport in most zones. On the heels of the MHA, Haryana government stated that it will ply buses to felicitate return of the people who are stranded in Delhi, from May 18.

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Shramik express and migrants

On May 1, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed the movement of stranded migrants, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons across India via special trains called 'Shramik trains' operated by the Ministry of Railways. As of date, Railways has carried 10 lakhs of Shramiks in 800 trains to their home state. Of these 318 trains have carried 3,84260 people to Uttar Pradesh, according to the state government.

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Migrant rail fare controversy

After Centre's Shramik train announcement, several reports claimed that migrants were being charged rail fare to travel back home, which led to the Congress party offering to the Centre to pay for all migrant labourers' rail fare. The Centre hit back claiming that 85% of the fare cost was borne by Centre while 15% was borne by state governments, adding that only Kerala, Rajasthan and Maharashtra had not paid their share. Since then, Maharashtra and Rajasthan has announced that the State government will pay for migrants' fare.

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Stranded migrants issue

After PM Modi had announced the first phase of lockdown, on March 28, thousands of migrant workers were seen thronging the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Delhi's Anand Vihar Interstate Bus Terminal in the hope of reaching their homes, defying lockdown and creating a health hazard. Similarly, after PM Modi announced the extension of the lockdown till May 3, on April 14, around 2,000 migrant workers gathered at Bandra station, under the illusion of boarding 'Jansdharan Express' trains to UP, Bengal and Bihar. Apart from this several visuals have been seen of thousands of migrants walking across state borders to reach their native homes due to loss of income amid lockdown.