The Telangana High Court on Monday pulled up the South Central Railway (SCR) for failing to help a group of migrants who were stranded near the Secunderabad station due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Directing the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) to appear before it on Tuesday, a bench comprising Chief Justice RS Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy sought to know why an extra bogie could not be attached to a train, to send the migrants home.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which said that 47 workers were stranded in a shelter and waiting to go home for weeks.
The SCR's counsel argued that they could not provide an extra bogie as per guidelines of the Indian Railways, and added that there were differences in technicalities between passenger and goods trains that had to be taken into consideration.
"When you can earmark special bogies for marriage parties, why can't you do it for poor migrants? That too when ordered by the Supreme Court itself," the Chief Justice was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
“I will request the DRM of Railways on behalf of migrant workers to attach a single bogie to a Bihar-bound train," he further added.
TNM had earlier reported how according to the Secunderabad Mandal Revenue Officer, Shramik trains from Telangana were stopped on May 30, “since all the workers have left the state”.
Despite this, many migrant workers had been camping outside the Secunderabad railway station, with no authority approaching them to guide them and address their concerns.
Telangana had allowed interstate travel and resumed rail services from June 1, as part of 'Unlock 1', where the Centre issued guidelines to ease the lockdown restrictions.
While thousands of migrant workers made their way to Medchal on Hyderabad's outskirts and boarded a truck home amid the lockdown, those who were still left behind are now stranded near the Secunderabad railway station.