Even as thousands of migrant labourers board special trains to return to their home-States amid the national lockdown, the humanitarian question of who pays for this journey looms large.

There are many unanswered questions — given the limited number of seats, who decides who gets to travel and who is left behind and on what basis; who decides how much is the price of each such ticket; given States’ inexperience in dealing with such matters, are non-state actors such as NGOs or brokers popping up to fill in the vacuum created by the Centre and States to decide on some questions, and do these special trains comprise ‘transport function’ or ‘relief work’?

A practical challenge that the Centre-backed national transporter Indian Railways faces is this: Having decided it will “sell” a bunch of roughly 1,200 tickets to State governments for running each train, it just prints the tickets in a lot and issues the bunch to either an NGO or an official nominated by the State, according to railway officials from the States. But that leaves States responsible for prioritising who will travel, how much each traveller will pay to the States or its representatives. This, according to officials, also opens up a window for brokers and sub-brokers who can and are in charge of distributing the ticket, in some cases. Apparently, an NGO distributed the tickets in one of the eastern States, said an official, adding that labourers are having to bear the travel expenses at least in some cases. Most railway officials agree that the labourers, who are already facing dire economic challenges, should not be made to pay for the train travel.

“This is not transportation work. This is relief work,” said a top official of railways. “Who has the funds right now? Railways, which is already paying pension, salary, fuel and maintenance bill every month, is staring at its own deep financial challenges, not earning a single penny from passenger trains. States are cash-starved. Should not PM Relief Fund or PM Cares fund be used? Or the Centre pay for this, considering this is not core transport function but relief work?”

“During Uttarakhand floods when people were airlifted, did Indian Air Force bear the funds?” asks another senior railway official. Railway officials say they are already booking about 54 people per coach against 72 seats, which limits the seating capacity and thus, revenue per train. Moreover, these shramjivi (wage earner) special trains return empty, adding to the Railways’ costs.

85/15 Centre-State conundrum

As pressure on who will pay for the journey mounted, the Centre started conceding that it will bear a part of it. The Railways or the Centre will cover 85 per cent of the costs, leaving States to cover 15 per cent of the total cost of running a train, reiterated Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, in a press conference on Monday, adding that the Centre never talked about charging the labourers.

Which stakeholders in the Centre will pick the tab, and to what extent, is not yet clear. Incidentally, the Railways covers 50 per cent of the cost of a sleeper class ticket — and these are extraordinary circumstances, where the Centre is expected to pitch in rather than pass the buck.

Last Friday onwards, the Indian Railways started making available trains to run between two points provided the States sending and receiving migrant workers were on board regarding each person to be moved, and States paid the Indian Railways for moving 1,200 people or at least 90 per cent occupancy. However, an official word on who in the Centre will bear how much of the cost of running these trains is still awaited.

After the Railways sought base fare for tickets from States, the matter assumed political undertones on Monday, and got stuck in a Centre-State tussle.

On Monday morning, within hours of Congress President Sonia Gandhi stating Congress was ready to foot the bill for migrant workers’ train journey, BJP’s spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted that BJP-ruled States were ready to pay the bills.

Shortly after, Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who belongs to JDU party, which is an ally of the BJP, announced that his State will pay the money directly to the workers who arrive.

Till Tuesday evening, the Railways had run 62-odd such shramik (labourer) special trains. On Monday morning, BJP’s Subramaniam Swamy tweeted that an announcement on migrants travelling ‘free’ is expected. But there was no announcement on ‘free travel’ at least on Monday.

Meanwhile, migrants — many of who are part of informal economy — have hid in concrete mixers, jumped on to boats, ambulances, walked on highways and along the train tracks to reach their home-States.

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