Migrant exodus: Maharashtra parties blame abrupt lockdown, Shramik trains delay

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MUMBAI: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Congress workers in Maharashtra of being responsible for the mass exodus of migrants during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, leaders from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government hit back saying that the humanitarian crisis was caused by Centre, which announced the national lockdown on short notice, and compounded by a delay in starting Shramik Special trains to transport migrants back to their home towns, thus forcing them to walk thousands of kilometres back home.

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said in a press conference on Tuesday that PM Modi’s statements “insulted Maharashtra” and demanded an apology from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Tomorrow onwards, we will stand outside the BJP’s offices and demand an apology from the prime minister to protest against the insult to Maharashtra. The leaders of BJP in Maharashtra must apologise to the people of the state,” Patole said.

In his reply to the debate on the President’s speech, PM Modi on Monday said, “During the first wave, when the country was in lockdown at that time the W.H.O. [World Health Organization] and all health experts advised people across the world to stay wherever they are. For, an affected person will take corona along with him wherever he goes. At that time, Congress workers stood at Mumbai stations and distributed free tickets and instigated migrant brothers and sisters to leave Mumbai.”

“They (the workers) were told, ‘You belong to UP and Bihar. Go back and spread Covid there.’ It was done to lessen the pressure on Maharashtra. This was a wrong thing to do. You created chaos and put worker brothers and sisters in great difficulties,” PM Modi said amid fierce protests from the Congress led by its floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, in the Parliament on Monday.

Here’s a re-cap of what happened between March and April 2020, and how the MVA government and the Centre have engaged on the issue of migrants since the first wave.

Migrant protest in Mumbai

In a televised address on March 24, 2020, the PM announced that starting midnight, a national lockdown will be imposed for 21 days. He said that the lockdown was necessary to save the lives of every citizen, during the pandemic. Effective immediately, public transportation will be available only for essential services. The following day, workers from different cities began to throng the stations and bus stops keen to return home. As most public forms of transportation had been stopped, many migrant workers began to walk back home with their belongings.

On April 14, 2020, thousands of migrant workers gathered outside Mumbai’s Bandra railway station and demanded from the authorities to make transport arrangements to their respective native states. The Mumbai police had to resort to a lathi charge to control the crowds.

The incident sparked a war of words between the MVA government and the Centre, with Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray blaming the Modi government for the protesting migrant workers and seeking a road map to facilitate their return journeys home.

Aaditya posted a series of tweets: “The current situation in Bandra, now dispersed or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union government not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home migrant labour.”

“Right from the day the trains have been shut down, the state had requested trains to run for 24 hours more so that migrant labour could go back home.”

“The CM Uddhav Thackeray ji raised this issue in the PM-CM Video conference as well requesting a roadmap for migrant labour to reach home,” he said.

How Maha handled the migrant situation

There were no explicit directives from any state government functionary asking migrants to leave. In an address to the state on April 19, 2020, — five days after the first major migrant protests — the CM switched from Marathi to Hindi and addressed migrant workers asking them to stay back. He said that the state will arrange for their travel back to their hometowns as soon as the crisis ended.

“I give you my word that the Maharashtra government will take you to your homes the day this crisis ends. I believe that when you go back to your homes, you should go back happily and not out of fear,” Thackeray said.

A senior Maharashtra bureaucrat, who did not wish to be named, said that in April 2020, Thackeray made two requests to the Centre to start special trains for migrant labourers, after the national lockdown was extended on April 14.

“After the 21-day lockdown was extended, the chief minister during video-conference with the prime minister requested for special trains. The state district administrations were already directed by the government to open shelters for migrant labourers,” he said.

In the first wave, the Centre had anticipated a rise in Covid-19 transmission between April 30 and May 15.

The exodus of migrant labourers in Maharashtra was largely from cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Nashik, and Pune. By March 30, the state set up 270 relief camps that provided shelter to about 71,000 migrants, according to Maharashtra’s relief and rehabilitation department.

A tweet from the chief minister’s office (CMO) on April 21, 2020, said, “Approximately 6 lakh migrant labours are being provided with food, shelter & medical assistance in relief camps set up across Maharashtra by the Government. However, in such times staying away from their homes & families is taking a toll on them.”

A CMO statement on April 21, 2020 requested the Centre to arrange special trains for sending back the migrant workers, stuck in Maharashtra to their native places.

Thackeray requested the Centre to issue guidelines by the end of April, after the national lockdown was extended. “If the Central government is anticipating a rise in transmission of Covid-19 between April 30 and May 15, then it must consider if it can utilise the time at hand to arrange for special trains to send them back home and issue guidelines about this by April-end,” the April 21 statement said.

The senior bureaucrat quoted above said that the state’s repeated requests were triggered by the growing anxiety among the stranded migrant labourers.

“Many had started their long journey on foot in March [2020] after the sudden lockdown, but as the lockdown was extended, their anxiety was visible and the state feared a law-and-order situation, especially after the gathering in Bandra,” he said.

Special trains for migrants

The Centre started Shramik Special trains for migrants starting May 1. However, a war of words between the Centre and the Maharashtra government continued.

In a series of tweets on May 24, 2020, railways minister Piyush Goyal slammed the MVA government for the lack of planning and presented figures to show how Maharashtra failed to fill the trains arranged for the workers.

State transport minister Anil Parab had hit back stating that the Indian Railways sent all trains meant for the state in one go instead and did not heed the demand of the state to operate the trains in a staggered way.

By May 31 2020, close to 1.2 million migrant workers returned from Maharashtra to their respective home states in 826 Shramik Special trains. The state spent around 100 crore on train tickets for these labourers, the government announced. The maximum number of trains (450) left for Uttar Pradesh — this was followed by 177 trains for Bihar and 49 for West Bengal. This data is according to the state’s relief and rehabilitation department.

Member of Parliament Supriya Sule, who is from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one of the three coalition partners in the MVA, quoted the railway ministry’s figures provided in the Lok Sabha and said on Tuesday that the highest number of Shramik Special trains were operated from Gujarat — 1033.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashish Shelar said that the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena acted as “super spreaders”.

“Prime Minister has clearly stated that Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party were playing politics at the cost of the people’s lives. They were super-spreaders and we saw that in the Bandra station incident where the ones in the government spread rumours about outstation trains resulting in thousands of migrants gathering there,” Shelar said.

“The lives of the poor migrants’ lives were endangered by such rumours. Had the government been one to imbibe the values of Maharashtra, they would have helped the poor migrants remain in the state,” Shelar said.


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