Coronavirus lockdown | Paid Rs 1 crore in advance to Railways for migrants' train tickets: Uttarakhand govt

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The BJP-led government in Uttarakhand has junked all reports of stranded migrants, returning to the state by Shramik special trains, having to pay for their tickets.

The state government has claimed that they had made advance payment worth Rs 1 crore to the Indian Railways to ensure that the labourers do not have to pay the train fare.

The details of the transaction between the Uttarakhand government and the Railway Ministry have been made public, alongside information on the official communication between the state and the Centre to bring back labourers stranded in other states.

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Meharban Singh Bisht, Director General of Information, said: “The decision to put all the aforementioned information in the public domain in a transparent manner was taken after a section of media claimed that the state government didn’t pay for the tickets of about 1,200 migrants who returned from Surat.”

A report in Hindustan Times states that the government official claimed some media houses levelled the allegations only to tarnish the image of the government.

Bisht added that the information directorate will continue to put out such information in the public domain in the future also if “misinformation” is spread against the government again.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand government spokesperson Madan Kaushik has also reiterated that Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s government is sincerely trying to facilitate the return of all stranded migrant labourers.

He further informed that nearly 2.02 lakh registrations to return to Uttarakhand were made as of May 12, and 63,000 migrants have been successfully brought back home.

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