Railways to provide Shramik Special trains to states within 24 hours

New Delhi, June 09: The railways has written to the states asking them to provide a "comprehensive residual" demand for Shramik Special trains to ferry migrants to their homes by June 10, hours after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to complete the process in the next 15 days.

."So far, more than 4347 Shramik Special services have been operated by Indian Railways to transport approximately 60 lakh persons to their destination states. Shramik trains are being run since 1 May 2020," the statement said.

In a letter to the chief secretaries of the states, Chairman Railway Board V K Yadav said as per the order of the Supreme Court on Tuesday that in case of additional demand for Shramik Special trains, the railways will facilitate the movement of migrant workers within 24 hours of a request from the states He said 141 such requests have already been placed by the states to the national transporter so far.

"In this context, you may please advise the comprehensive residual demand for Shramik Special Trains for movement of stranded workers from your state/UT along with the number of travellers, originating station, destination station, schedule and dates by which the transportation shall be completed.

"The details may kindly be communicated through an official letter by June 10," he said in the letter issued on Tuesday. Yadav had earlier written to the state governments on May 29 and June 3 seeking information on the projected demand for Shramik Special trains. As of now, sources said, the railways has 13 such trains pending -- 10 destined for West Bengal and one each for Bihar, Nagaland and Odisha -- which are all scheduled to leave on Tuesday.

While 10 trains are originating from Kerala, two are originating from Tamil Nadu and one is departing from Karnataka. "I would like to assure you that Indian Railways will provide the desired number of Special Shramik Trains within 24 hours of the request. Indian Railways will also meet any additional demand that may arise over and above the projections given, at a short notice," Yadav said in the letter.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and state governments to send all the migrant workers to their native places within 15 days and formulate employment schemes after conducting their skill mapping to rehabilitate them.

It also directed the Centre to provide additional trains within 24 hours of states making the demand for sending the migrant workers back to their native places. The bench directed the authorities to identify and register migrant workers who want to go back to their native places and conclude the exercise, including their transportation, within 15 days from Tuesday.