West Bengal Government announced on Saturday that 10 trains carrying migrant workers will enter the state from Karnataka Punjab, Tamil Naud and Kerala.
"West Bengal Govt has given green signal to 10 trains carrying migrant workers to enter the state. A train will reach Malda from Telangana tomorrow. 6000 inbound passes for small cars have been approved," state home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said.
He also said native migrant workers stuck in UP's Vrindavan and Mathura will also be brought back.
Alapan also highlighted that Some labourers are walking into West Bengal from the neighbouring states, for whom medical testing is done immediately before being sent to their respective districts. He also pointed out that the administration is providing food and transport to the stranded migrant labourers.
Earlier, Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah on Saturday wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informing her that the central government is not getting the TMC-led Bengal state government's support in helping migrant labourers reach home.
Shah said that the West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrants to reach the state, thereby paving the road towards creating further hardships for the workers. The Union Home Minister called this 'injustice' to migrant labourers.
"We are not getting expected support from the West Bengal. The state government of West Bengal is not allowing the trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them," Shah wrote in his letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
When asked about the aforementioned letter from the Home Minister to the Chief Minister, state home secretary refused to comment on it.
Alapan also said that he supports the decision taken by the government of India to bring back Indian citizens stranded in other parts of the world due to the lockdown.
"If anyone is stuck abroad, we have supported GOI's initiative to bring people back. They will be put to quarantine," he said.
Notably, the Centre and the Bengal government have clashed frequently amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country, with an IMCT (inter-ministerial central team), which visited the state to review its handling of the crisis, this week accusing Banerjee's administration of taking an "antagonistic view".
In its observations on Monday, the central team said the high mortality rate in the state was a "clear indication of low testing and weak surveillance, tracking".
In West Bengal, there are 1786 cases of COVID-19, with 99 deaths in the state. 108 cases of #COVID19 & 11 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, state secretary informed.
