After facing flak, Karnataka to resume trains for migrant workers

The Karnataka government, which came under severe criticism for cancelling special Shramik trains to other states for the transportation of migrant workers, tourists and students, has decided to resume train services from Friday.

After two days of chaos and confusion over the decision to abruptly stop the train movement, the government asked for consent from nine states to operate trains from Karnataka.

While Bihar has given permission to ply one special train everyday for a week starting from Friday, the state is awaiting consent from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bhopal, Rajasthan, Odisha, Tripura and Manipur.


In the letter of request sent from Karnataka to Bihar, the former had asked the latter’s permission to send two special trains every day, but Bihar agreed to receive one train at present.

The state may be able to send only about 10,000 people in eight trains to Bihar, while the number of people from Bihar who have registered under Seva Sindhu to return to their homes is more than 50,000. About 2.4 lakh people have registered in Karnataka, seeking train service to return to their home states.

The government’s decision on Tuesday to cancel the movement of special trains to ferry stranded labourers, created unrest among workers as a large number of them had ventured out on streets and railway stations with a hope to go back to their villages.

Labour unions accused the government of dancing to the tune of builders and cancelling trains to retain the labour force to support construction activities.