Train with migrant workers expected back in Jharkhand tonight amidst worries over the rest

Although the first train carrying stranded migrant workers in Telangana reaches Jharkhand tonight, uncertainty remains over the fate of half a million residents of the state stranded at various places

Photo courtesy: social media
Photo courtesy: social media
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VP Sharan

A special train with 24 coaches and carrying 1200 migrants from Telengana to Hatia in Jharkhand left Lingampally station on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Friday. Jharkhand government also sent buses to Kolkata for bringing back migrant workers, students and patients from the state stranded there. The chief minister has promised to bring them back in planes if needed.

But the task remains daunting with the state government claiming the number of such stranded people to be close to a million while experts put the figure at a more conservative half a million. But whatever be the number, transporting so many people by road, as permitted by the Home Ministry notification, appears nearly impossible.

Buses from northern, western or southern states, officials point out, are unlikely to undertake the journey and return with no passengers. And even if hundreds and thousands of such buses are mobilized, the cost will be prohibitive and beyond the capacity of states.

A batch of around 20 students from Jharkhand stuck at Tiruchi in Tamilnadu wanted the State Government to reimburse money to the tune of Rs 1.80 lakh for the vehicle they had hired for their journey back to Jharkhand, officials disclosed.


The Jharkhand Chief Minister had shot off a strongly-worded letter to the Prime Minister , Narendra Modi, last Sunday saying, among other things , that in case the state was not allowed to bring back migrant workers immediately it might lead to social unrest in rural areas of the State.

According to official statistics, as of now 9.44 lakh people are reported stranded at 14,032 places in the country. All appeals by the Government officials and medical specialists to these stranded people to stay back where they are, fell on deaf ears. Instead, they were insistent on their plea for arrangements to return home.

The central government in a U-turn issued a notification this week, allowing state governments to move the people by road. But there is neither any explanation why the notification was delayed nor any clarity on how state governments will mobilise buses and who would pay for them. Since the lockdown was announced at short notice by the Centre, state government officials argue, the bill ought to be borne by the Centre.

After sitting over the Jharkhand chief minister’s request for special trains, and ignoring for weeks Hemant Soren’s dire warning that unless stranded people return quickly, there will be severe social unrest, the Centre inexplicably allowed a train to finally run on Friday. But the Centre is still silent on the Jharkhand chief minister’s plea to run point-to-point special trains between important stations and Jharkhand.


Jharkhand Government, meanwhile, designated 15 senior IAS officers for different districts of Jharkhand to work as nodal officers to monitor the process of movement of migrants as stipulated under the Centre’s guidelines.

The Chief Minister, Hemant Soren , discussed the issue with Union Minister Piyush Goyal also. He is believed to have told Goyal that it was physically not feasible for the state Government to bring back nearly nine lakh workers and another thirty thousand students and patients stranded in thousands of far flung areas in the country by road without Centre’s help.

JMM spokesman Supriyo Bhattacharya said the state government would like to have ,what he called, ‘dedicated trains’ to be run between at least metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Hydrabadand Kolkata and such places in Jharkhand like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad first.

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Published: 01 May 2020, 4:47 PM