A train with over a thousand passengers — mostly migrant labourers — left for Lucknow from the city on Tuesday evening. They had to cough up ₹1,000 per ticket for the journey. The money was collected by the police officials and tickets booked. This is contrary to claims that the Centre and the State government would bear the ticket costs.
Maneesh Yadav, 26, a painter, was happy that he finally found a place on the train home. “I raised a loan from three of my friends for the ticket,” he said.
Indian Railways had also said the State governments can either pay the consolidated cost of the trip or collect it from passengers. The Karnataka government seems to have decided to collect the fares.
‘No decision’
“We neither have any directions from the Union government nor has there been a decision to this effect in the State government. In that scenario, the passengers have to pay,” said N. Manjunath Prasad, nodal officer for inter-State travel from Karnataka.
This comes days after the State government was forced to make intra-State travel for migrants free, after Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee offered to pay ₹1 crore towards the cost.
