Thiruvananthapuram: The railways on Monday cancelled five special trains from Kerala to Bihar after the Bihar government denied permission for the same.
The special trains introduced to ferry stranded migrant labourers, were supposed to originate from the Alappuzha and Tirur railway stations. This is a major jolt to thousands of migrant labourers who are stuck in Kerala due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has granted permission for 2 special trains from Kerala.
The train services to Bihar were cancelled after the government failed to provide a non-objection certificate(NOC) for the same.
Over 7,000 migrant workers have been ferried to Bihar from Kerala since Friday. The train services to Bihar were directed to different stations across the state due to over-crowding at Patna station. Bihar government had arranged over 200 buses to transport the migrant workers to the quarantine camps in their respective districts.
However, it stopped the special trains after a huge influx of migrant workers from other states.
Over 10,000 migrant workers ferried to other states in 3 days
Five special trains with 5,574 migrant labourers had left for Bihar from Kannur, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Ernakulam districts on Sunday. The Saharsa non-stop train with 1,140 passengers started its journey from Kannur on Sunday night. The train from Kozhikode, with 1,090 workers from the labour camps in Vadakara taluk, bound for Katihar in Bihar was operated on the same day.
The train from Thrissur to Dharbhanga in Bihar had 1,143 passengers. As per the records of the labour department, there are nearly 3,398 migrant labourers from Bihar in Thrissur district. From Ernakulam district, as many as 2,201 workers have returned to their home state of Bihar. A train to Barauni in Bihar with 1,140 passengers started its journey on Sunday afternoon, and another train to Muzaffarpur in Bihar left Ernakulam on Sunday evening. As many as 5,513 migrant labourers went to their native places in the past 3 days from Ernakulam district.
Six special trains ferried 6,827 migrant labourers from Kerala on Friday and Saturday.
This included 3,312 from Ernakulam district, 1,140 from Thiruvananthapuram, 1,175 from Kozhikode and 1,200 from Malappuram. The trains have been named as Shramik, a Hindi word meaning labourer.
The first train from the state departed from Aluva railway station in Ernakulam district on Friday evening, carrying 1,110 workers to Odisha.
On Saturday, two more trains left the district. The train that departed from Ernakulam North railway station had 1,111 workers to Bihar on board, while the second train from Aluva carried 1,091 labourers to Odisha.
The Jharkhand-bound train left Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station at 3.30pm on Saturday with 1,140 workers.
The Dhanbad-bound train (Jharkhand) from Kozhikode had 1,175 persons on board, while the Patna-bound train from Tirur in Malappuram carried 1,200 migrant workers.
Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam have also granted permission for special trains from other states. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have denied permission for reverse migration during lockdown. Chattisgarh government has announced that it will bear the travel expenses of migrant workers returning from other states.
