The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Saturday hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his accusation that the West Bengal government was being unjust to the migrant workers by not allowing ‘Sharmik’ special trains to reach the state. The party leaders, meanwhile, claimed that the government will run eight trains to ferry the workers.
“The Centre is lying, eight trains are ready to ferry passengers to Bengal from different states,” Trinamool Congress leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, according to PTI. “It is no right to say that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not allowing migrants to come back.”
She alleged that the Centre wants to embarrass Banerjee and thus “gain politically” in the state. “They cannot tolerate her and that is why they are targeting us singularly,” she added.
The leader also hit out the government over the deaths of migrant workers in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city. “Sixteen migrants died on your watch, will rail minister take responsibility?” she asked.
Trinamool Congress leader and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee asked Shah to either prove his allegations or apologise.
The Trinamool Congress said that the government is planning to bring back 31,224 migrant workers from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Telangana.
Later in the evening, officials from the Indian Railways confirmed that they have received proposals for running eight trains to West Bengal from Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, PTI reported. Three trains from Karnataka, two each from Punjab and Tamil Nadu and one from Telangana will ferry stranded people to the state over next few days, they added.
Earlier on Saturday, Shah said that the Centre was not receiving the expected support from the Mamata Banerjee-led government to help stranded migrant workers reach the state. He accused the state government of doing injustice to the workers.
West Bengal has recorded 1,678 cases of the coronavirus and 160 deaths so far, according to data from the Union health ministry. The state government has been sharply criticised by the Centre over its poor response to the health crisis.
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Also read: Fearing spread of infection, Bengal pays only lip service to idea of getting back its migrants
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