Government claims on Shramik train not on right track: Congress

As the Congress mounted a massive campaign against the Centre over the alleged hunger deaths of migrants in Shramik special trains, the ruling BJP was quick to get into damage control mode, revealing details of the reasons which led to these and slammed the Opposition party of ‘politicising unfortunate deaths”.

“None of the deaths which have happened in Shramik Special Trains have been caused by hunger or starvation as per the post mortem reports. Natural Deaths have occurred on the trains in the past too but the manner in which unfortunate deaths of Shamika have been politicised is unprecedented without waiting to know about the exact cause of deaths,” the party said issuing a statement condemning “petty politics” on the issue.

This was hours after Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the central government of ‘distorting’ facts about rail travel of migrants not only on cost-sharing but also deaths due to mismanagement of trains and cited the case of death of a woman in Muzaffarpur. Singhvi highlighted the “statistics of 81 deaths” of those travelling in Shramik special trains and flagged the mismanagement related to food and water supply and inordinately delayed running of trains. Demanding the resignation of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Singhvi said Goyal should either resign or be removed as Railway Minister.

Singhvi highlighted "contradictions" in claims of the government on providing subsidy, food and facilities in these trains, which, according to Railways ferried over 57 lakh migrants.

BJP on Wednesday gave details of passengers, who died due to other reasons. “Dashrath Prajapati, a 30-year-old man at Manduadih Station was suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease. Ram Ratan Ground, 63-Year-old was a Divyang since childhood and his condition was deteriorating as per the video statement given by his family member. Ibrar Ahmed as per post-mortem report, the death of passengers was due to brain stroke and not due to dehydration. Arbina Khatoon was suffering from the pre-existing mental ailment as per the statement of her relative,” the BJP said.

Dismissing Singhvi’s criticism, BJP also stressed that the Ministry of Railways is bearing 85% of the total cost of getting the migrants back to their home states while the remaining 15% is charged as the fare from the state governments. The party, though, included in it the 43% subsidy given by railways on an average on the travel cost.

BJP claimed more than 98 percent of Shramik Special Trains ran on their scheduled route and only 71 trains were diverted which is 1.75 % of the total trains run by Railways. Singhvi alleged that 40 percent of trains ran late and the average delay was eight hours while 78 trains were delayed by more than one day and 43 trains more than 30-35 hours.