A special train will ferry stranded migrant workers from Aluva in Kerala’s Ernakulam in Kerala to their homes in Bhubaneswar in Odisha on Friday evening. The train will not have stops in between the two stations.
The workers will be screened by the Health Department and also by the police before the journey and those who clear the screening will be allowed to travel on the train. The workers will be transported to the station by the government. People won’t be allowed to come and halt at the station premise in order to avoid jostling.
Southern Railways said that it will make sure that no violations of lockdown restrictions happen and that there will not be any panicking. The tentative time of the departure of the train is 6 pm though there is no fixed time table.
“The Railways will allow only those who are screened by the state government. It's the joint responsibility of the Health, Police and the Transport Department to screen and to bring the workers from where they live to the railway station. What Railways is doing is to arrange the train,” Railway Public Relations Officer Thiruvananthapuram, Shiby, told TNM.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday also reiterated the demand to arrange a special train for migrant workers who wish to return home.
Perumbavoor, near Aluva, has one among the highest number of labour camps in the state and Aluva is one of the stations which see large numbers migrant workers who wish to travel.
“Railways conducts the service as per the requirement of the state government. The direction is to all the railway divisions to arrange trains to the destinations as per the requirement of the state governments,” Shiby added.
Kerala has a migrant population of over 3.6 lakh who are currently housed in about 20,862 camps. Pinarayi during his daily COVID-19 press briefing on Thursday said that it’s not practical to take the workers via bus as there would be a high chance of the disease spreading.
Kerala asks Centre for special trains to transport over 3.6 lakh migrants
On Thursday morning, around a hundred migrant workers in Malappuaram district had taken out a protest march demanding to return home.
This is the second such instance in the state. On March 29, hundreds of migrant labourers had gathered at Paippad in Chananassery, demanding that they be allowed to return home.
Registration for stranded workers
Meanwhile, the state on Friday started the registration process for the stranded migrant workers. According to the State's Labour Department, there are 20,826 camps across the state, where 3,61,190 migrant labourers are presently residing, which are under the control of the respective district administrations.
On Friday, officials reached these camps and started noting down all the details of the labourers. The list will then be sent to the Centre so that arrangements can be made by the Indian Railways to operate non-stop trains to various parts of the country.
The migrant labourers in Kerala mostly hail from Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
With inputs from IANS.