Centre doesn't have any mechanism to send migrant workers home: Jharkhand CM Soren
RANCHI: Over the Centre's remark that Jharkhand has not provided approval for enough 'Shramik Special trains', Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Friday said that the BJP and the Centre have a habit of playing politics over everything.
Taking a jibe at the Centre, Hemant Soren told ANI: "One should ask the Centre if they started the trains on their own or only after the Chief Ministers urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, via both verbally and through written applications, to start trains for the migrant labourers who are stranded in other states."
"It has become a habit of the BJP and the Centre to play politics over everything. Jharkhand government has till now given No Objection Certificate (NOC) for 110 trains. Around 50 trains have brought back over 60,000 migrant workers so far," he said while adding "Jharkhand was the first state to have brought back migrant workers to the state."
Slamming the Centre for not having any mechanism to help the migrant labourers who are forced to walk to their homes, he said, "Lakhs of migrant workers are walking on foot but the Central government doesn't have any mechanism to send them to their homes. The Central government is just playing politics over the issue."
In an interview to ANI on Thursday, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said, "Indian Railways has provided 1,200 trains exclusively earmarked to run the 'Shramik Special trains' for our migrant labourers to take them back to their homes. It pains me that while Uttar Pradesh has already given permission for 400 trains, Bihar 200 trains which have departed for their respective states, there are several states such as West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, that are not giving enough permissions for 'Shramik special trains' to enter their states."