4th Shramik Express train leaves Ferozepur for Gonda District with 1190 passengers
Ferozepur, May 16, 2020: Today, the fourth Shramik Express train moved from Ferozepur Cantt railway station for Gonda district with 1190 passengers.
Earlier, three trains have moved with 3600 migrants workers from 8 districts of Malwa and one from Majha.
As per the decision of the government, these migrants are being shifted to their home districts in view of shutting down of industry and other production houses or having no work in view of the lockdown because of the coronavirus threat in the country.
In fact, owing to the strenuous efforts of the state government led by the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh the fourth ‘Shramik Express’ train with 1190 migrants onboard chugged off from Ferozepur Cantt railway station to Gonda district of Utter Pradesh. Deputy Commissioner Ferozepur Kulwant Singh flagged off the fourth train on Saturday afternoon.
The Deputy Commissioner said that Punjab government was bearing the entire expenses of the train and has so far spent Rs. 24.48 lakh on running of these four trains from the Ferozepur district which include Rs 6.12 lakh for free travel of all migrants in train to Kanpur (UP), similar amounts for Amethi, Gaurakhpur and two trains for Gonda district. He added that apart from this state government was also providing refreshment, water bottles and other basic needs for the migrants who were moving to their native state in the trains.
Pertinently, the Punjab Government has sanctioned a whopping amount in the first phase, towards its share of the migrants’ cost of transportation by the Indian Railways. The Ferozepur administration has received the amount from the state government which was being paid to the Railways directly for providing tickets to the registered passengers thereby enabling them to go to their native states free of cost.
Likewise, a team of the Health department was screening every migrant who was coming to the station for boarding the train. The district administration had made adequate arrangements for maintaining social distancing amongst the passengers before boarding the train. Besides other facilities, at the entrance of the railway station all the migrant laborers were being provided with the food packets, water bottles, face masks and many more facilities.