The government said on Monday that it has not talked about charging anything from migrant labourers as 85% of the transportation cost is borne by the railways and 15% by state governments.
This comes amid a row over the national transporter allegedly charging the workers for ferrying them home during the COVID-19-induced lockdown.
The government also said the process of transporting the stranded migrant labourers was being coordinated by states “except for one or two states”.
“We have given the permission to run special trains on states’ request. We are dividing the cost in 85-15 per cent (railway: states) as per the norms. We never asked states to charge money from the stranded labourers,” Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal told reporters.
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He was responding to questions following Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s announcement that her party would pay the fare for all migrants and needy workers travelling home by these trains.
Sonia Gandhi said it was “disturbing” that the centre was charging migrants who had been stranded without food, shelter or jobs in their hour of crisis.