Home minister Amit Shah (L) and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (R)
NEW DELHI: Tensions between the Centre and the West Bengal government flared again with home minister Amit Shah writing to chief minister Mamata Banerjee pointing out the states failure to make arrangements for the return of migrant workers from the state and Trinamool responding by accusing Shah of spreading lies.
Shah said while migrants from West Bengal working in other states are anxious to return home and the Centre and states where they are stranded have made arrangements, including trains to send them back, there is no response from the state government.
The spat is the latest after the Centre and the state clashed over allegations that numbers of Covid cases were being manipulated by a state committee and claims of non-cooperation with central teams to monitor the disease.
Late on Saturday evening, the railway ministry tweeted that Indian Railways has so far run more than 300 trains mainly for states like UP, Bihar, Odisha and MP but from West Bengal till Saturday morning “we had received approval for only 2 Shramik special trains- 1 from Ajmer Sharif & other from Ernakulam”.
Railways said after Shahs letter, West Bengal approved three trains from Karnataka, two each from Punjab and Tamil Nadu and one from Telangana, which are being arranged. “However, WB has not approved any train from Maharashtra, while there is a requirement of 16 trains to WB and presently 6 requests are pending for which approval is still awaited.”
Trinamool responded, with Rajya Sabha member Derek OBrien saying, “Retract or apologise. It is part of the home ministers DNA to play politics during a national epidemic. Sleep if nothing else.” He cited letters written by Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha from May 3-7 to other states for arranging migrant workers return.
Another TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said in a tweet: “A home minister failing to discharge his duties during the crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with a bundle of lies!” In a reference to the death of 16 migrants sleeping on railway tracks in Aurangabad, he added: “Ironically, hes talking about the very people who have been literally left to fate by his own government.”
Only two days back, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary had a discussion with Shah on the issue of return of West Bengal migrants. “He told me that he has been continuously asking the West Bengal government how many trains they need to bring back migrant workers but till two days ago state government had not sent a list,” Chowdhary was quoted by ANI as saying.
The Bengal government on Friday announced eight special trains for bringing back more than 31,000 workers from Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka, though the Centre contested as to just when the requests arrived.
“We have already arranged special trains to bring migrants back. One such traRead More – Source
[contf]
[contfnew]
times of india
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
