South Central Railway agrees to send Bihar migrants home

HYDERABAD: The wait to return home for 49 stranded Bihari migrant workers is over with the South Central Railway (SCR) agreeing to arrange their travel aboard its Hyderabad-Patna train on Wednesday under the emergency quota (EQ). Secunderabad divisional railway manager (DRM) Anand Bhatia conveyed this to a Telangana high court bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy on Tuesday.
The DRM assured the bench that the SCR will do everything in its power to help stranded migrants. The bench said that this was what they were expecting officials to do during a crisis instead of “repeating verses from the rule book.” It may be recalled that earlier, while hearing pleas by social activist Professor Rama S Melkote, S Jeevan Kumar of Human Rights Forum, the HC had been upset with the SCR for listing out reasons for not being able to help migrants despite the fact that the expenditure was being taken care of by the state.
The DRM agreed before the bench to allot all EQ seats in sleeper class and third AC coaches to migrants travelling to Patna. “We have 34 sleeper class seats and 20 third AC seats at our disposal to be allotted under EQ and we are ready to earmark these seats to the migrants. This is a special arrangement and we will ensure all migrants are sent to their places,” Anand said. For this, officials like the district collector have to obtain tickets for the migrants and apply for EQ to enable the provision.
Petitioners’ counsel Vasudha Nagaraj urged the bench to ensure that this arrangement is continued for some more time because given the regular inflow of migrants at the Secunderabad railway station. “Their number may not be as high as in the past but it is a fact that they are still coming every day in smaller numbers,” she said. The bench directed the state and SCR to continue this arrangement.
“This is a human tragedy and we must act accordingly,” Chief Justice Chauhan said. Rejecting a point raised by one of the petitioners to allot migrants seats instead of berths, the CJ said: “They suffered enough. Let them go home comfortably.” The bench posted to case to June 26 to verify its progress.
Earlier, the bench was flummoxed when the SCR had narrated about specifications of a 24-bogie train and the difficulty to add more coaches to existing trains. However, the DRM admitted that all trains were not 24-bogie long and that some of them run with 18 bogies too. “We will be able to attach up to six bogies to such trains,” he said.