The West Bengal government has arranged for additional 105 special trains to help facilitate the return of migrants to the state, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday.
“Towards our commitment to helping all our people stuck in different parts of the country and who want to return back to Bengal, I am pleased to announce that we have arranged 105 additional special trains,” tweeted Mamata.
Over the coming days, these special trains will embark from different states for various destinations across Bengal bringing our people back home, she added.
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Mamata Banerjee has stated that her government has maintained a humane face towards the residents of Bengal. On Tuesday, she had said that the state government is taking necessary measures to bring back the migrants stranded in various parts of India.
Banerjee said that about one lakh migrants had already returned to Bengal and there would be 100 more such trains to bring back the others.
Meanwhile, the deputation of additional 105 special trains comes days after Home Minister Amit Shah in a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, expressed his dismay over the state government stonewalling efforts by the Centre to facilitate transportation of migrant labourers back to the state.
“West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrants reaching the state. We are not getting expected support from West Bengal. The state government is not allowing trains to reach. This is injustice for West Bengal migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them,” Shah said in his letter to Mamata.
Shortly after, the state government claimed that it has already planned to run eight trains to ferry labourers from four states.
However, the Indian Railways trashed the claim stating that “there were no proposal on record” so far with the national transporter to run the ‘Shramik Special’ trains as claimed by West Bengal.
The Centre and West Bengal government have been at loggerheads over the Coronavirus pandemic, including COVID-19 death figures, low testing, flouting of lockdown guidelines, among others.
Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday, terming the economic stimulus package announced by the Centre as “a big zero”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it was nothing but an “eyewash” and full of “misleading information”.
“In the name of lockdown, the Centre is trying economically cripple all the state governments. The announcement made by the Union Finance Minister was full of misleading information. It is nothing but a big zero as the states have got nothing,” Banerjee told a press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna.
She said that the economic activities and the lives of common people have virtually come to a standstill across India, but there was nothing in the stimulus package.