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INDIA-TRANSPORT
Special trains for 3.6m Indian workers stranded in lockdown
NEW DELHI, May 23, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – India will organise special
trains to get at least 3.6 million migrant workers stranded by the
pandemic lockdown back home, authorities said Saturday as fresh
coronavirus cases in the country hit a new daily high.
With fears rising over the spread of the disease in Mumbai and
other major cities, the government said 2,600 special trains would run
over the next 10 days to help the workers who lost jobs when the
lockdown started two months ago.
Millions of migrant workers have been stranded in the densely
populated cities and many have walked hundreds of kilometers to get
home.
Scores have died in accidents and even from exhaustion and hunger
in the struggle to reach their villages.
Vinod Kumar Yadav, chairman of the Indian Railway Board, said about
80 percent of the new “Shamrik”, or labourer, trains would go to Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh states, the biggest source of domestic migrant
workers. About four million have already been moved on the special
trains.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is gradually easing the world’s
biggest virus lockdown, which has caused mass unemployment among
India’s 1.3 billion population.
But at the same time, the number of new cases is rising each day,
with at least 6,600 reported Saturday. The health ministry has
confirmed at least 125,101 cases and 3,720 deaths.
Experts say the outbreak will not peak in India until June or July
and authorities face an increasing struggle to contain the pandemic in
Mumbai, Delhi and other cities that account for the bulk of cases.
But Health Minister Harsh Vardhan called for calm over the crisis.
“There is no need to panic due to COVID-19 as the world has learnt
to live with hundreds of viruses,” Vardhan said on Twitter.
“Have faith in your government as we are following the best
possible strategy, due to which we have one of the lowest fatality
rates in the world.”
India’s caseload is fast catching up with that of Iran, one of the
worst-hit countries with 131,000 positive cases but 7,300 deaths.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2041hrs