Piyush Goyal, Uddhav Thackeray engage in war of words over Shramik trains allotted to Maharashtra

Mumbai: Hours after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a statement claimed that the Indian Railways had not provided him with the required number of trains, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal issued a counter statement dismissing the claims and blamed the state for canceling several trains citing lack of adequate safety measures.

The war of words between the leaders stems from the fact that the Maharashtra government claims to have given a list of 200 trains to the Indian Railways which the latter is vehemently denying.

While holding a video conference, Thackeray had mentioned that he had put in a request for 80 Shramik trains but the Centre only allowed 30-40 trains. He even claimed that he had prepared a list of migrants workers in his state who want to go back to their respective native states.

In a press release on Sunday, the Central Railways said: "On demands given on daily basis by nodal officers of the Government of Maharashtra, Railways have run 520 Shramik special trains carrying 7,32,166 migrant workers till 23.05.2020. The demands for Shramik special trains are given by State Government with list of travellers, their destinations and other details after consulting receiving states."

The statement said that the Central Railways had fully complied with the demands of the Maharashtra government and will continue to do so.

It pointed out that on Sunday the railways authorities had been waiting for more than two hours for the list of passengers with details of their destination to plan for the trains running in Maharashtra on Monday. 

"Sadly, it has been 2.5 hours but Maharashtra Govt has been unable to give required information about tomorrow`s planned 125 trains to the GM of Central Railway. Planning takes time & we do not want trains to stand empty at the stations, so it`s impossible to plan without full details," Goyal wrote on microblogging site Twitter.

More than 2.5 hours have passed but still passenger details for 125 planned trains in Maharashtra not received by GM Central Railway from Government of Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/A4CXFpxKCZ — Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 24, 2020

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut too jumped into the melee by claiming that the government had provided with the list of number of trains required. He took potshots at the Union Minister via tweet saying, "Maharashtra government has given the list of required trains to the Railway Ministry. The only request from Piyush Ji is that the train should reach the station at which it should arrive. The train leaving for Gorakhpur should not reach Orissa."

महाराष्ट्र सरकार ने रेलवे मंत्रालय को अपेक्षित गाड़ियों की सूची दी है। पीयूष जी @PiyushGoyal से सिर्फ विनती यही है कि ट्रेन जिस स्टेशन पर पहुंचनी चाहिए उसी स्टेशन पर पहुंचे। गोरखपुर के लिए जाने वाली ट्रेन उड़ीसा न पहुंच जाए।
@AUThakeray@CMOMaharashtra@PawarSpeaks — Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) May 24, 2020

Maharashtra saw its COVID-19 tally crossing the 50K mark with the highest single-day infections of 3,041 patients taking the number of psoitive cases to 50,231, with 58 deaths.