Are people of the country more important or the revenue of the Railways? Telangana High Court enquires

The High Court Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy heard the contentions of Advocate Vasudha Nagaraj, Amicus Curiae appointed by the Court to assist it in dealing with the issue. She apprised the Court that despite the orders of the Court on the last date of hearing to shift the 200-odd migrant labour, who are presently stuffed into a shelter home in Regimental Bazaar, Secunderabad to a more spacious place where there are more toilets and space so that they live in comfort till they are transported out of the State has not been done.

The High Court on Friday while dealing with a tag of public interest litigations seeking a direction to the State Government to ensure that the entire migrant labour and brick kilns workers stranded in Telangana be shifted to their native place viz., Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and Delhi, etc., Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan observed it is the duty of the State government to look after these migrant labour, they cannot be asked to live below animal existence… and these migrant labour cannot be left at the mercy of nature, imagine yourself, if you are migrant labour and you will have to spend 24 hours in cramped accommodation, how would you feel", the bench added.

Amicus Curiae Vasudha Nagaraj informed the Bench that there are about 200 migrant labour every day, ready to move from Secunderabad to Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa etc., Due to non-availability of the Shramik Trains, these migrant labour are still stranded at the Secunderabad railway station and are housed in a shelter home at Regimental bazaar, Secunderabad. In a shelter home where only 120 persons can be accommodated, nearly 350 persons are stuffed.

The Railways has made it clear that it will run only Shramik Trains and will not demarcate bogies in special trains for these migrant labourers. It is not justifiable to ask the State government to speak to SCR and arrange Shramik Trains for these 200 Migrant labour every day as the cost of running a Shramik train costs about 10 lakhs.

Further, Pushpender Kaur, Standing Counsel for the Railways informed the Bench that it is only running special trains and till October 2020, almost all the trains are full with reservations and for migrant labour, it cannot cancel reservations and said that it is impossible to demarcate bogies in special trains because, if such a thing is done, passengers who have reserved tickets will cancel their tickets.