As India went under lockdown to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, migrants laborers, students and pilgrims were stranded away from their homes. Now, the Indian government has issued guidelines to run special trains to send back such individuals home. All individuals are required to write an application to the local police station and no tickets are issued from the railway station. Complete Coverage: Coronavirus
Crux of the Matter
Amid lockdown across the country, migrant workers were left with no option but to stay at their workplaces. As their daily income stopped due to COVID-19, they were relying on the government supplies for meals and basic necessities. Various parts of the country even witnessed chaos and protest from migrant workers.
Shramik Special & Fare Flare The government has decided to ferry the stranded migrants back home. Railways under special request started a special Shramik train. Railways has subsidized ticket fare by 85% and the rest 15% can be paid by the states. To maintain social distancing, only 1200 passengers will board the train instead of the full capacity of 1600. Around 100 trains will be run to make sure that everyone reaches their home.
The local government authorities shall handover the tickets to the passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and handover the total amount to the railways. Problem is once you make services free, everyone is eligible to travel. Then who is coming to the stations; who all are travelling would become a problem to track. This service is for stranded migrant workers, students, etc. only and they are allowed to travel only after thorough screening. These trains are not for the general public. Indian Railways
Above figures are based on estimates from the 2011 Census that suggest that there could be 65 million migrant workers in India
Miscommunication on the burden of fare sparked a political war in the country. Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala have refused to pay money for the tickets on behalf of the workers. They argued that the Central Government on a humanitarian basis should make the journey free for poor migrant laborers. States like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan agreed to pay the optional 15% of the ticket price on behalf of the migrant workers.
Shri Siddhartha Verma #IRTS AOM Lucknow was at Lucknow Railway station to receive Shramik Special Train coming from Nasik with over 800 stranded migrants. Maintaining social distancing and after screening, passengers were escorted to their home towns in buses.#IRTSMovingIndia pic.twitter.com/gL4MSpNmoi — IRTS Association (@IRTSassociation) May 3, 2020
NRIs – Now Returning Indians The Ministry of Home Affairs has planned to bring back Indian citizens stranded in foreign countries back to India. Fleet of 64 planes will bring back Indian citizens from 12 countries i.e. the US, the UK, Singapore, Bangladesh, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Malaysia. Earlier India had evacuated Indian citizens from Wuhan and Iran by sending special planes.
Curiopedia
In 1990, Air India entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the “most people evacuated by a civil airliner”. The record was achieved when the 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait was carried out from August 13, 1990, to October 20, 1990, after the invasion of Kuwait by Iran. Air India evacuated 1,70,000 people.
Indian Railways is the fourth largest railway network in the world by size, with a route length of 95,981-kilometre (59,640 mi) as of March 2019. It is the world’s eighth-largest employer, it had 1.227 million employees as of March 2019.
The logo of Indian Railways has an image of a steam engine, which was used by the Indian Railway in the early days. The logo has the Lion Capital of Ashoka at the center. The words “Satyameva Jayate” (सत्यमेव जयते) are written below it in Devanagari Script. The logo has 17 stars which represent the 17 Railway zones in the country.
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