Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel Dharmendra Pradhan urged his counterpart in Railway Ministry Piyush Goyal to re-operationalise Shramik Special trains.
In a letter to Piyush, Dharmendra urged to restart the trains from Odisha to states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra to facilitate the return of migrant workers to their workplaces.
Here is an excerpt of the letter which the Petroleum Minister wrote in Odia: Several people have written to me requesting to restart the special rail services so that they could return and rejoin their work.
There was a mass exodus of migrant workers from states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra to Odisha as a nation-wide COVID-19 lockdown was declared. With subsequent Unlocks, the nation is trying to return to normalcy. In this situation, there is a need to resume rail services so that the migrant workers could return to their workplaces.
Several organisations have come forward and have offered bus services from Odisha to various states. However, with the prevailing monsoon conditions and the long and arduous journey via road is neither feasible nor safe for such long distances. Keeping in mind the need to revive our economy and the plight of migrant workers in Odisha who are in urgent need of livelihood, I request your personal intervention for restarting of Shramik Special Trains from Odisha to States like Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra at earliest.