Railway Fare Should Not be Charged From Stranded Migrant Laborers After Lockdown : Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary

New Delhi : Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that migrant laborers stranded in different parts of the country travel to their destinations free of charge after the lockdown ends. The railway should be instructed to give permission. In four consecutive letters to the Prime Minister, Chaudhary said that “A large part of the migrant laborers belong to the minority community. I request the government that seeing the “pathetic condition” of these people due to the lockdown in the holy month of Ramadan, they should be provided with food.”

Referring to the plight of migrant laborers in various parts of the country, Chaudhary has sought to direct the Ministry of Railways to allow them to travel free of cost to their destinations. In another letter, Chaudhary, MP from Baharampur, has sought to strengthen the public distribution system in West Bengal. He claimed that the grain that the central government is sending is not reaching the beneficiaries in the state.

He claimed that under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, grains are not reaching the beneficiaries of the state, while hunger is not linked to any gender, religion or political ideology. In another letter, he has drawn the attention of the Prime Minister to the beedi workers of Murshidabad district of the state, who became unemployed during the lockdown.

The Congress leader, who hails from Murshidabad, has demanded special support of the central government for the proper monitoring of (beedi) production, distribution, sanitation and export of products, so that the beedi industry can be restored after partial relaxation of restrictions imposed due to lockdown.