Sharad Pawar thanks Piyush Goyal for providing trains to ferry Maharashtra migrants.(FILE)
NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday thanked Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for acceding to the request for providing trains to transport stranded migrant workers to their native states from Maharashtra.
Mr Pawar had on May 9 raised the issue of migrant workers with Mr Goyal, who the NCP chief had then said, assured of arranging trains for labourers to return to their respective home states amid the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.
"Thank you Union Railway Minister Shri @PiyushGoyal ji and @RailMinIndia for acceding to our requests for providing trains to transport the migrants from different parts of Maharashtra to their home states safely, Mr Pawar tweeted on Tuesday.
Lakhs of migrant workers have returned to their home states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, among others, from Maharashtra till now.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had last Sunday said that West Bengal and Bihar governments are not issuing required clearances to run trains at a number desired by the state government, saying they are "very slow" in responding.
He had also said a total of 20 lakh migrants, most of them from Bihar and West Bengal, have registered themselves with the Maharashtra government so far for travelling back to their native states in special trains.