After HC rebuke, Gujarat agrees to pay train fares

AHMEDABAD: After getting a rebuke from the Gujarat high court over its reluctance to pay train fares for migrant workers who are heading to their native states, the state government agreed to pay for train fares for those workers who are travelling from May 24.
In its reply to the HC query, the government stated that since the states of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha are paying for the fares for their people, the state government has decided to pay for other workers.“On and from May 24, 2020, the government of Gujarat decided to pay the travelling charges for the workers of the rest of the states,” it said.
On May 22, the HC lambasted the state government for its stand that it would pay for only 7,512 workers from other states because only these many workers were registered under the Interstate Migrant Workers Act, and that it was not liable to pay the allowance for 22.5 lakh workers. The HC said, “This is not done,” and directed the railways to waive one way charges of migrant labourers or in the alternative, the state government was directed to bear the charges. The court said that the government must ensure that the migrant workers do not have to face further difficulties for the purpose of travelling to their native places.
The government has informed the HC that till May 27, total 13,84,023 inter-state migrant workers returned to their native places by 953 trains from Gujarat. Of them, nearly 6.21 lakh workers left from Surat in 423 trains. Meanwhile, a PIL filed by Congress MLA Naushad Solanki is pending in the high court. He has demanded that the state government should be directed to deploy the GSRTC buses to help intra-state workers to reach to their native districts.