Thiruvananthapuram, April 30: While welcoming the decision of the Central Government to allow the movement of inter-state migrant labourers to go home, Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today reiterated the demand of the State Government to run special non-stop trains to transport them. He also termed the Central Government’s order to transport them by buses as impractical for transporting the migrant workers in Kerala.

Addressing the media, the Chief Minister said, “There are 3.6 lakh migrant workers staying in 20,826 camps spread across Kerala and most of them (about 99%) want to go back to their native places. A large percentage of the guest labourers in Kerala are from West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It would not be practical or feasible to transport such a large number of people over such long distances cutting across several states by bus. It would involve massive logistics problems besides the high risk of spread of the disease and hardship to the people. Therefore, we request the Central Government to ask the Railways to run special non-stop trains to transport these migrant labourers to their native States. I had earlier written to the Prime Minister to allow movement of migrant labourers by non-stop trains.”

The Chief Minister also informed that Chief Secretary, Shri Tom Jose IAS has written to the Union Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla IAS in this regard.

Transporting these migrant labourers by train back home with proper social distancing practices would also ensure that they get medical attention and adequate water and food which can be provided by the railways.

The CM also added that the migrant labourers should realise that it would not be possible for all of them to go back in one shot. They need to be prioritised. The police and other voluntary organisations should be involved to manage such large scale movement of people across multiple states.

Minister of Health & Social Justice, Smt K K Shailaja; Revenue Minister, Shri E Chandrasekharan, and Chief Secretary, were also present during the daily media briefing.