JOIN USAs many as 1,151 stranded labourers from Dakshina Kannada left for Uttar Pradesh in a ‘Shramik special train’ on Monday.
Earlier in the day, a large number of stranded labourers had gathered at the service bus stand in Mangaluru in order to travel to Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. They were working in different parts of the district and were left stranded without jobs after the lockdown was imposed across the country.
Ram Rahim told DH that he was working as a carpenter in Mangaluru for the past 10 years. He remained jobless after the lockdown was imposed and was finding it
extremely difficult to eke out a living and thus decided to return to his native village.
Ram Parvesh, another labourer, said he had come to the district six months ago and had secured a job painting buildings.
Both labourers had succeeded in purchasing train tickets up to Uttar Pradesh. The fare of Rs 1,040 per person included bus fare from service bus stand to the railway station, food and water bottle.
‘Rs 150 cr from Centre’
The state government had received Rs 150 crore from the Centre to pay the department of railways for running Shramik special trains in the state, MLC Ivan D’Souza told reporters in the district Congress Bhavan on Monday.
Ivan D’Souza claimed that as per the discussions on the structure of fare, the state was asked to bear 10% fare by the Centre.
“But the government ended up collecting 100% fare from poor migrant labourers. The total fare of Rs 1,040 also included transport (Rs 40) and food charges (Rs 40). The entire operation of running Shramik special trains in the state would not exceed Rs 5 crore. So where did the rest of the money go?” asked Ivan.
As against the claims of the district administration, those who had not registered on Seva Sindhu App had also travelled in the train. The MLC regretted that the thousands of migrant labourers lured into the district were being fleeced and sent home.