As the migrant workers from Maharashtra are preparing to go their native states, the West Bengal government on Tuesday has refused to accept them. The state government here was waiting for the approval from West Bengal government to send nearly 24,000 migrant workers on two special trains from Thane to Shalimar station in Howrah.
The officials informed that the decision of West Bengal government not to take back migrants from Maharashtra comes as a shock to the state government which had been waiting all day for approval. The state government has identified migrant workers. However, no tickets have been issued to them and no one has been taken the railway station.
“West Bengal has been very uncommunicative but the refusal was unexpected. No reason was given,” TOI quoted a senior official as saying.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government has agreed to follow the centre’s guideline in order to accept the migrants. This development comes after Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik claimed that Yogi government was creating hurdles in accepting migrants back from Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
Earlier, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik informed that the UP government was adding preconditions like testing migrant workers and labourers for COVID-19 before accepting them.
“There are 25-30 lakh people from the Uttar Pradesh and it will take more than one year to test all of them,” Malik said while appealing UP government to take back migrants like other states.
The Bihar government had earlier given blanket approval to accept its migrant workers and labourers from Maharashtra. However, the Nitish Kumar government changed its stance and said that it will now be decided on a case-to-case basis.
Nawab Malik had also pointed out that the Karnataka government was also not keen to take back its migrants from Maharashtra. The BJP government in Karnataka has remained firm on its stance to not take its migrants back from Maharashtra.
Nearly 2,000 migrant workers boarded three special trains from Kalyan terminus. The migrant workers from various parts of Mumbai were brought to Kalyan terminus. The three ‘Shramik’ trains were organised to Guntakal in Andhra Pradesh, Darbhanga in Bihar and from Panvel to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.
Until now, seven trains have been run from the outskirts of Mumbai to ferry the stranded migrant workers and labourers to their native states. Some trains left from Nagpur, Nashik, Akola and Nandurbar while no trains have been started from Mumbai and Pune.
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