Mamata govt refutes Railways on clearance to run migrant trains, calls it 'misleading'

The West Bengal government on Saturday night termed the railways' statement about receiving clearance to run migrant trains from the state in the evening "misleading and incorrect". The Mamata government said that it was given on Friday or before.

West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay tweeted, "Ministry of Railways tweet is misleading and incorrect." "All trains mentioned in their tweet were approved and communicated to the states concerned on May 8 or before, no new decision in this regard has been taken today. Further decisions to follow in due course," he said.

After day-long war of words between the state and the Centre over the matter, the railways said in the night that had received "clearance" from West Bengal for running eight special trains to the state to ferry people stranded outside due to the lockdown. A senior railway official said three trains from Karnataka, two each from Punjab and Tamil Nadu, and one from Telangana will take stranded people to West Bengal over the next few days.

Republicworld had on Saturday accessed letters written by West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha to his counterparts in four southern states — Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana — and giving the go-ahead for running trains with Bengal-bound migrants.

READ THE LETTERS HERE

The railway official, has said that no 'Shramik Special' train departed for West Bengal on Saturday as claimed by the state. "Indian Railways has so far run more then 300 trains mainly for states like UP, Bihar, Odisha, MP, etc. But for WB till today morning we had received approval for only 2 Shramik Special trains, 1 from Ajmer Sharif & other from Ernakulam.

"After request of Home Minister today afternoon West Bengal has approved two trains from Punjab, two from Tamil Nadu, three from Karnataka and one from Telangana, which are being arranged," the railway ministry tweeted at 8:47 pm. It also said that West Bengal has not approved any train from Maharashtra, while there is a requirement of trains to the state from there for which approval is still pending.

READ | HM Amit Shah Writes To Bengal CM Mamata Over 'inaction' On Proper Movement Of Migrants

 Home Minister wrote to CM Mamata Banerjee

Union Home minister Amit Shah on Saturday in a letter accused the Mamata Banerjee government of not allowing trains to ferry stranded migrants to their homes, but the state refuted the charge saying around 6,000 people have already returned and 10 more trains carrying stranded labourers will arrive soon. 

READ | Mamata Govt Counters MHA's Claim, Lists 8 Trains & ‘draft Schedule’ Meant For Migrants

It was after a letter from Shah accusing the state government of not allowing its migrants home that the TMC in a press conference said that it has made plans for eight trains, four of which will depart Saturday.  However, within minutes railway officials said that they had received no clearance from the state to run trains there.  Till now, out of the 302 Shramik Special trains run so far, only two have been to Bengal. 

READ | MHA Vs Mamata: Letters From Bengal CS To 4 Southern States On Shramik Trains Accessed