Gujarat Model Governance: Migrants Paid For Their Own Train Tickets In Contrast To What BJP Has Claimed

Ahmedabad: No, no government has helped us. We paid for our own tickets and went without food and water for seven hours, Migrants tell Mirror. Mirror busts the BJP lie that State government and Railways were paying for tickets. Migrants claim otherwise. Some say they got a merger subsidy.

Even as the BJP claimed that it is paying 85% of the ticket fare for the migrants, an Ahmedabad Mirror investigation has revealed that this is not true, at least in Gujarat. Mirror has video evidence where migrants say they paid for tickets. Mirror spoke to over 20 migrants who left for Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh from Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara and they unequivocally said they were asked to shell out money for all destinations except Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The BJP was caught unaware when Congress president Sonia Gandhi flagged the issue of poor migrants having to shell out money to reach to their home states amidst the lockdown and announced that Congress will pay the travel cost of all migrants across the country.
A confused BJP attempted to get into a damage control mode and was looking for reasons to justify that Mrs Gandhi’s demand was wrong to cover up their Central government’s lackadaisical attitude on the issue.

The BJP officially announced that while 85% of the ticket cost was borne by Indian railways, they said 15% of the cost was being bored by respective State governments. Mirror can testify this is not true.

Mirror spoke to several migrants who said they had to borrow or manage money for the tickets. Mohanlal from a village in Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh said they were eight of them and they have not been paid salaries for six weeks. Mohanlal said the railway ticket from Ahmedabad cost them Rs 460 each and out of this only Rs 180 was “relief”. “I don’t know who paid Rs 150. For us Railways also is government. What I can say is that I came from Adalaj, we were without water for hours after coming to railway station. I did not have money. I have borrowed it from a Rabari and will have to return the money with interest.

At least the Rabari gave me a loan and trusted me. I will send him money from UP,” he said, stressing that the Gujarat government or Dilli ki Sarkar has done nothing for them. “Nobody cares for the poor. There are flights for rich, nothing for us,” his wife said. Another migrant, Vijay Kumar from Bihar, said he voted for the Nitish government. “That time we were treated like kings. We were paid to go to Bihar by train and vote and even our meals were looked after. Every day I go to collectorate here but I am told Bihar is not ready to accept migrants from Gujarat,” he said.

Debasish, who works at a marble processing house, said he bought a ticket for Orissa from his money. He said he had several friends in Surat who also had purchased tickets. “There were some buses sponsored by BJP MP CR Patil, Navasari MP but most of my friends traveling by train purchased their own tickets,” he explained.

When Mirror contacted three senior BJP leaders including ministers, they said, “This must be some confusion and communication gap.” They asked for three hours to get back but five hours later they had gone incommunicado. Mirror also tried to contact the Chief Ministers Office but Ashwini Kumar did not respond.

Dharod Yadav, Lav Kumar and Anita Rani voiced similar opinions. From Surat, Jignesh Vora of Ahmedabad Mirror got evidence to prove that migrants who left for Orissa had to shell out Rs 800 and in some cases Rs 740 for the tickets.

A senior bureaucrat based in Delhi told Mirror, “We were categorically asked to convey to States that fare was to be collected from migrants only.” He wished to remain anonymous but shared a government notification issued by ministry of railways where Clause 11(c) clearly says “the local state government authority shall hand over the tickets to the passengers and collect the fare and hand over the total amount to the Railways”.

Meanwhile, Congress State leaders begun helping migrant workers by setting up control rooms and help lines. Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda said since 8 am, they have been working towards the same. “Our Congress President has exposed how BJP is only for the rich. It can waive off loans in millions but cannot help poor people in these excruciating times of corona pandemic,” he said.

Bihar and Delhi Congress in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil said he was flooded with requests with migrants and students wanting to leave. “No migrant has got government help for purchasing tickets,” Gohil said adding that the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar was totally non cooperative.

“It is indeed sad that the PMCares fund has millions of rupees. There is going to be no auditing also for that fund. The BJP has been in power for six years and still it is the Opposition party- us who have taken up the responsibility of stranded migrants and students,” he said.