Parliament proceedings | Railways ignored plight of migrant labour, say Opposition MPs

In this photo dated May 31, 2020, migrant workers travelling by a Shramik Special train queue up for water at Vijayawada. (Source: The Hindu)

The mass exodus of migrant labour on foot and the subsequent running of Shramik Expresses by the Ministry of Railways in the middle of India’s COVID-19 lockdown and logistical challenges in dealing with China figured as a recurring theme as the Lok Sabha took up the debate on demand for grants for the Railways.

As Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal sat through the almost eight hours and more of debate, Opposition MPs said that charging returning labourers from their work place to their home town on Shramik Expresses was not well done, while treasury benches lauded the provision of trains and their frequency.

Congress MP Deepak Baij said the “government only woke up when the common man came on to the streets”.

“It was only after Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the Congress would bear the travel cost of needy migrant labour that the government decided that the Centre and States would split the cost of travel,” said Mr Baij. Congress MP from Punjab Gurjeet Singh Aujla said much the same and credited Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh besides Congress president Sonia Gandhi for having compelled the government to come forward with Shramik Expresses.

Anurag Sharma of the BJP, however, said the Lalitpur-Jhansi area saw the running of eight trains to transport nearly 4.5 lakh people returning home during the lockdown. “Railway Minister Piyush Goyal took calls at 1 a.m. to ensure that lines were sanctioned and running,” he said.

Interestingly, BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh Tapir Gao drew attention to the other big issue that cropped up in the midst of the pandemic — the border face off with China.

“In 2019, the government announced a railway line from Tezpur to Tawang, while China is constructing a railway line along the eastern border from Lhasa. We lost the war in 1962 because we did not have railway connectivity. I request the government to remove the clause of economic viability in the national interest for railway lines in the North-East region particularly Arunachal Pradesh,” he said.

Mr Goyal will reply to the debate on Tuesday morning.