Train coaches for COVID-19 isolation wards a gimmick: Derek O'Brien

With only a few of the 5,300 train coaches that were converted into COVID-19 isolation wards, the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday said the Centre's move was nothing but a "gimmick to create headlines", as it did not even consult states whether they needed it.

Trinamool's Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien said the first deployment of 10 coaches came almost two months after this was announced.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted, "Railways deploys first set of isolation coaches in Delhi (Shakur Basti Railway Station) for treating those with COVID-19 infection. The rake with 10 disinfected coaches has 160 beds and is equipped with medical facilities to comfortably quarantine the patients."

"Now that 10 coaches are deployed, we want to know where are the remaining 5,290 coaches. We want to know to which states they were sent? What was the cost of converting it into isolation wards? We have heard that converting it into wards required 2-3 times the cost of the coaches itself," O'Brien said here.

"The conversion of coaches into isolation wards was a gimmick aimed at grabbing headlines. Several former top officials of the Railway Board have told that this was a bad idea. You made a complete mess out of this. This was to create headlines and manage perception," he added.

O'Brien said several doctors have expressed their unwillingness to work there. He accused the Centre of spending money on isolation coaches without checking with states.

He said the Centre could have used these coaches to send stranded migrant workers in the first week of lockdown that started on March 25.

When asked about Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks that migrant workers were not sent in the beginning as it gave states time to prepare, O'brien countered it saying whether the Centre checked with states.

"Did Shah say some migrant labourers lost their patience (during his interviews)? They didn't lose patience, they were hungry, homeless, they lost their dignity. Not just they lost dignity, you robbed them off their dignity. How do you know that states were not prepared? How many meetings you had with Chief Ministers on this?" he said.

"If you had planned then, you wouldn't have run Parliament parallel to the formation of Madhya Pradesh government . Your focus was not COVID-19, not federalism but formation of government. It was all about getting a new Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh. 2021 (West Bengal Assembly elections) is not our priority right now, it might be for Amit Shah. Our priority right now is to fight COVID-19," he added.