Nitish Kumar May Allow Bihar Migrants To Return In Private Vehicles Too

Bihar may allow stranded migrants to return home via private vehicles, in addition to special trains run by the Railways, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Sunday during a video call with BJP legislators. A day earlier he said any returning migrant could go to the police, who would arrange for vehicles to help reach their destination.

The comment regarding private vehicles came after the legislators pressed him on the issue of facilitating the return of people stranded due to the lockdown, something the BJP-led centre has permitted, reportedly fearing political backlash, via special trains.

This was after it banned non-essential inter-state travel, rules apparently flouted by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh that in March sent buses to bring back migrants from Delhi and students from Rajasthan.

Nitish Kumar's promise also came after a meeting with leaders from his Janata Dal (United), including block- and district-level presidents and legislators. The meeting is significant given criticism of his government over the migrants crisis by BJP leaders, with whose party Nitish Kumar rules Bihar.

Nitish Kumar, who has formally thanked the centre for the "shramik" trains and for considering ferrying people via rail instead of buses, as the government had initially proposed, has, previously been vocal about allowing inter-state movement of people during a lockdown to prevent further spread of the infectious COVID-19 virus.

Last month he lashed out at the "injustice" of UP sending buses to Kota; he told NDTV the move defeated the purpose of the lockdown. Subsequently he appeared to backtrack, indicating that his government would be open to a similar move providing the Home Ministry relaxed restrictions on travel.

Bihar is bracing for a surge in coronavirus cases with the return of migrants, as Railways Minister Piyush Goyal has said the number of "shramik" trains will be increased over the next few days.

The state has reported 591 cases so far, with five deaths linked to the virus. 322 people have been discharged after receiving treatment.

India is the middle of a prolonged nationwide lockdown to break the coronavirus chain of transmission. Under the terms of the lockdown, scheduled to end on May 17, all non-essential rail, road and air traffic, and all economic activity except those relating to essential goods, had been stopped.

This led to lakhs of migrants being left without jobs or money and being forced to walk hundreds of kilometres home in searing heat and punishing weather conditions.

Over the past few days, "shramik (worker)" trains have returned more than four lakh migrant workers and others to their respective home states.

87 of these trains have terminated in Bihar, bringing back thousands of people; on Sunday alone over 3,000 migrants were permitted to board trains leaving Maharashtra and bound for both Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Thousands have also been brought back from Gujarat.

At today's meeting Nitish Kumar also accepted the demand to constitute coordination committees at district level, of which MLAs will also be a part. Several legislators had earlier been annoyed at being excluded from committees monitoring COVID-19 relief work in their respective constituencies.