West Bengal govt allows 10 trains carrying migrant labourers to enter State
May 09, 2020
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 9 : West Bengal Government has given green signal to 10 trains carrying migrant workers to enter the state, said Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay here on Saturday.
Speaking at a press conference, he said that a train will reach Malda from Telangana on Sunday, while 6,000 inbound passes for small cars have been approved.
Trains will be coming here from Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, he said, adding that Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha along with the team of nodal officers is constantly holding a discussion in this regard.
According to Bandopadhyay, health screening will be done once the migrants come. "The migrant labourers who are walking on foot, when they reach the outer state border, we are trying to use state government and private buses to send them to their home district," said
He said that 19,000 small cars outbound, 1,200 buses and 6,000 small cars inbound passes have been approved by the State government so far.
He said the state government has approved to bring back the people of West Bengal, who are stranded abroad. The Chief Secretary has already notified the Centre that all arrangements have been made for their quarantine.
It is worth mentioning that Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed his dismay over the state government stonewalling efforts by the Centre to facilitate transportation of migrant labourers back to their home state of West Bengal.
