New Delhi: AICC President Sonia Gandhi informed the All State Pradesh Congress Committees to assist the train fare and food to the migrant workers. She wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed the Indian Railways for asking State Goverments to pay for tickets of stranded migrants transported by Shramik special trains after collecting the ticket fare.

She alleged that this became huge burden on the states, and urged that the Centre not to put extra burden on states and already stressed migrant workers. She told the Union Government the Congress will bear the migrant workers train fares and as well as the food and other necessities. She criticized in her letter that the Government bare expenses to the people who are stranded outside the country, bringing them on flights with free fare.

The Union Government also expends Rs. 100 crores to a public gathering in Gujarat also. The Minister of Railways donated Rs. 151 crores to the PMCARES for the assistance of Covid- 19 pandemic, she said. But the Government is neglecting the migrant workers who are the back bone of the Indian economy, when they were stranded due to the lock down. She also said that the Congress party will pay the train fares to the Government for the migrant workers.

She also said to the Government, the migrant workers who are not having food, clothes, and money moved towards their homes by walk is very pitiable. This shows the miles long marathon of the migrant workers at the time of partition of the country in 1947, she added in her letter.

Several opposition party members also slammed the Indian Railways for asking State Governments to pay the fare for migrant workers. Though railway officials did not respond to quarries to clear the air formally, sources said it was upto the sending state to decide how it pays the ticket amount.