Lakhs of migrant workers are still returning to Uttar Pradesh from different parts of the country by special Shramik trains. However those travelling from Surat have alleged that they were charged Rs 800 against a ticket worth Rs 630.
According to News18, the labourers said they had no choice but to pay the money if they wanted to return home.
The report states that not only were the labourers made to pay for the tickets but were overcharged as well.
This has been alleged despite Railways’ claims about only charging the state governments and not migrant labourers for their journey home. Railways had also claimed that it only acted as a transporter that only charged state governments, that too at a subsidised cost.
Now, whether to collect money from passengers or further subsidise the remaining amount is at the discretion of said state government.
However, speaking to reporters at DDU railway station, a migrant, Sonika, said:
The price that I paid for the ticket is Rs 800, even the food that was served was just plain rice.
Another migrant, Subhash, said he had to pay Rs 750 for a ticket that had Rs 630 printed as the cost of travelling.
We had submitted the money in advance after which when our number came we were taken to the railway station from a bus. Before reaching the station, we were given the tickets in the bus, I think they were middlemen and not railway officials.
Neeraj Kumar, another migrant said:
When a few of us filled up the forms, our papers were rejected. At least 20 of us in that group were asked to pay Rs 800. When we asked for the reason, we were told that to travel we need to pay this amount or else we can move out of the queue. Those charging money looked like middlemen, they were not railway officials. They took our Aadhaar cards and money and then processed our tickets.
Earlier the central government had claimed that it was bearing 85% of the ticket cost for migrant labourers after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had said that her party would pay for the entire ticket fare for all labourers.