Political slugfest continues between Indian Railways and Maharashtra govt

Political slugfest between Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and the Maharashtra Government continued on Tuesday over operating Shramik Special trains as Union Minister accused the state government of not providing information about passengers, as a result of which many trains could not be operationalised.

"On request of Maharashtra Govt, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have left due to lack of passengers", Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted.

"I request Maharashtra Government to fully cooperate in ensuring that the distressed migrants are able to reach their homes and bring passengers to stations in time, and not cause further delays. It will affect the entire network and planning," Goyal tweeted.

Earlier, the Railways said though it had planned 125 trains for evacuating migrants from Maharashtra on May 25, the state government was only able to give information for 41 trains till 2 am.

"Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled.

Over the past two days, a war of words broke over Shramik Special trains between Goyal and the Maharashtra government after the state government alleged non co-operation from railways regarding running special trains to ferry migrant workers.

Goyal on Sunday night tweeted several times up to till 2 am, saying he is ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to Maharashtra and asked the state government to provide a list of passengers.

As per the latest guidelines, receiving state approval is not required to operate special trains but sending states have to give a list of passengers to be boarded and bring such passengers to the stations.