DK Shivakumar. (Photo | EPS)
BENGALURU: A day after the Congress donated Rs 1 crore to the KSRTC to cover bus fare expenses of migrant workers returning to their home towns, party state leaders on Monday offered to bear the train fares of Kannadigas stranded across the country to come back home.AICC interim president Sonia Gandhi had given a call for all state Congress units to pay the railway fare of poor migrant workers and labourers.
In a letter submitted to the state government through Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, Congress leaders, led by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar and Legislature Party Chief Siddaramaiah, asked the state government to request special trains for Kannadigas willing to come back home.
“We are ready to assist the state government in any manner required to ensure that Kannadigas are not disadvantaged or let down by their state government. As a step in this direction, we are ready to bear the monetary costs to be paid to railways in our efforts to help the cause of Kannadigas and Karnataka,” Shivakumar said in the letter.
The Congress appealed to the state government to strike the best deal possible with the railways to bring back as many Kannadigas as possible on special trains. The party maintained that this would be a one-time effort.
