Home Minister asks CM Mamata Banerjee to arrange for return of migrant Bengal workers

The first special train, carrying as many as 1,140 guest workers stranded in the district, left for Bihar from the Coimbatore Railway Junction on Friday. It is expected to reach Saharsa district on Sunday.

The state government would be short of Rs1.4 lakh crore, or 40 % of the projected revenue for the 2020-21 fiscal, if any financial package were announced for the migrant workers’ assistance, sources in the finance department said on Friday.

A 46-year-old migrant worker from Jharkhand, who decided to reach home by foot, collapsed and died after walking for 100kms on Thursday.

Tihidi police have lodged an FIR under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act against the six people seen in the video and a probe is underway.

The artwork is currently on view to staff and patients on Level C of Southampton General Hospital in Britain.

Opposition and Karnataka residents slammed the state government for treating migrant workers as "bonded labour" and holding them against their will.

The migrant workers were on their way from Ernakulam in Kerala to Bihar's Danapur when about a thousand of them were served the cooked meal along with water at Asansol station.

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Buddh International Circuit, which is India's first Formula One racing track, is being readied to be used as a shelter home and quarantine facility for migrant labourers leaving Delhi-NCR after Central Government announced a 21-day lockdown

Police quoted the migrants as saying that they were stuck in the city without jobs, money and adequate food and that they were even willing to walk to their home states if the special trains were not operated immediately.

The conditions of six of these migrants is reported to be critical. Those seriously injured have been referred to Prayagraj. Police has also informed the affected migrants' families of the mishap.

Then there are the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) which are not being able to access healthcare that is critical to their survival because of social distancing norms.

The incident occurred late evening on Wednesday and the accused, Ram Vilas Rajbhar (42), was arrested within hours, they said.

The crowding of workers at the railway station is learnt to be prompted by a social media post which went viral giving false information that free special trains have been arranged for workers, sources said.

Two men were arrested and two privately-operated buses impounded during the police action around 1.30 am on a Noida-Greater Noida road.

Minister Meena Singh and some officials have been rushed to Aurangabad by a special plane to facilitate treatment of the survivors. CM Chouhan said the deceased, who hailed from MP's Shahdol, would be cremated near the accident site.

Officers have been directed to submit a detailed report within four weeks with details of the steps taken by the district authorities to provide food and shelter to poor people, especially migrants, during the lockdown.

While the opposition Congress claimed that accused Rajesh Verma is a BJP worker, the ruling party denied it.

A police team rushed to the quarantine centre and launched an inquiry into the death of the migrant worker while the body was sent for post-mortem.

The Railways also warned people that although regular passenger trains were not in operation, the migrant special trains, parcel and freight trains were running on the rail network.

Ashif Sheikh, who runs a group that works for the rights of excluded communities, said one needs industry, investors, labour unions, civil society members and labour department officials to work together to solve the problem.

Contrary to the claims that the migrants are not being asked to pay train fares, the labourers were not just made to bear the cost of travel but also overcharged.

The workers started arriving at the bridge from the Delhi side on Friday afternoon and wanted to go home at the earliest, officials said.

The labourers had managed to reach the temple town of Tarapith from Purba Bardhaman district during the lockdown and started on foot from there towards neighbouring Jharkhand on Friday night.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said over 1.5 lakh migrant workers have applied on the government portal, expressing their willingness to return back to work in the state

The labourers, working in a steel factory in Jalna, left for their home in Madhya Pradesh on foot. Exhausted, they slept on the tracks near Karmad, not knowing that traffic of goods trains had not ceased despite lockdown.

Gehlot raised the issue during his telephonic talk with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday and sought smooth movement of migrant workers, including those from Rajasthan, stranded in various parts of the country.

Without taking any names, the Sena said it feared that some people in Maharashtra would "instigate" the migrant labourers for their petty political gains.

A senior Delhi government functionary rubbished the BJP'S claim saying all sanitation staff working in the fight against coronavirus epidemic are covered under the scheme.

Indian government decided to allow migrant workers, tourists, students stranded in different parts of the country to move to their respective destinations.

The Congress also highlighted the plight of the migrants who are stuck in different part of the country and wants to go home. The party urged the government to start plying trains immediately.

In a damage control exercise, state chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday directed the KSRTC to charge only single fare for ferrying the migrant labourers.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav questioned the significance of showering flowers from aeroplanes when there are reports of mismanagement in various quarantine centres.

Sonia Gandhi said that the Congress party had asked for provision of free rail travel for migrant workers to their home-towns, but their demands had been ignored by the Centre.

The Congress on Monday had said its state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrant workers stranded at their workplaces due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP's remarks come a day after the Home Ministry said plans to bring back Indians stranded abroad due the coronavirus pandemic have been chalked out by the government and the process will begin from May 7 in a phased manner. The Home Ministry also said it will be a paid service.

The Congress said the decision to go back or stay in the state should be with the labourers and not the government, with the former being free to choose health or work.

Special Shramik train arrived at the Amethi Railway station on Thursday with 1,212 Uttar Pradesh migrant workers on board, out of which 282 belonged to Amethi.