Railway asks states to foot bill for bringing migrant worker’s travel.

The Indian Railways has issued a set of guidelines for Shramik Special trains being run to ferry the migrants stranded across the country, saying the trains will ply only if they have 90 per cent occupancy and the "states should collect the ticket fare", inviting fierce criticism for charging for their services.
A provision in the SOP, which drew a good deal of flak, said the "local state government shall handover the tickets for these passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to Railways."
"If you are stuck abroad during this COVID crisis this government will fly you back for free but if you are a migrant worker stranded in another state be prepared to cough up the cost of travel (with social distancing cost added). Where did 'PM Cares' go? Like I said earlier you were better off getting stranded overseas & flown back home!," tweeted NC leader Omar Abdullah.
"It is very unfair that the entire responsibility has been shifted to state governments. This problem was not caused by states. In Parliament, the government said it bore the entire cost of repatriating Indians stuck abroad. In the same manner the migrants should have been sent back.
"Anyway, thousands of crores have been directed to PM-CARES," Yechury told PTI.
Railways rolled out the special trains on Friday. Normally, it said in the guidelines, the trains will be run for distances more than 500 km and will not stop at any station before the destination.

PM Modi to attend NAM virtual seminar on Covid 19.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to participate in a virtual summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on 4 May. The summit aims to enhance the coordination of the member states in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The summit will be conducted under the Presidency of Azerbaijan, who is the president of the NAM till 2022. The summit will be convened by President Ilham Aliyev.
The summit will identify measures for enhanced coordination among NAM members in their common fight against COVID-19.
The online session will conclude with a political declaration of the movement “uniting against COVID-19."
The summit-level meeting will witness the participation from representatives of international organizations such as the United Nations Secretary-General and Director-General of WHO.
This summit will be the first NAM meeting that the PM will attend since becoming the Prime Minister in 2014. The Prime Minister has skipped both the NAM summit in 2016 and 2019. India was represented by the Vice president Venkaiah Naidu in the last two summits in 2016 in Venezuela and 2019 in Azerbaijan.

2553 new covid cases Total crosses 42,000

India’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) stood at 42,553 on Monday morning as 2,553 new infections and 72 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry.
There are 29,453 active cases, 11,706 people who have been cured and 1,373 patients died so far,
India’s tally of Covid-19 had crossed the 40,000-mark on Sunday, 11 days after the cases had breached the 20,000-mark. The cases had crossed the 30,000-mark on April 29, while 15,000-mark was breached on April 19.

Congress to pay the train fare of the migrants ,Sonia Gandhi.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has launched a scathing attack on the Centre for charging migrant labourers returning home for their train travel in the wake of the novel coronavirus lockdown and said that the Congress will bear the cost of their travel.
"Our workers and labourers form the backbone of our economy. Their hard work and sacrifice are the foundation of our nation," she said.
Sonia Gandhi said, "The Indian National Congress has, therefore, taken a decision that every Pradesh Congress Committee shall bear the cost for the rail travel of every needy worker and migrant labourer and shall take necessary steps in this regard. This will be the Indian National Congress’ humble contribution in service of our compatriots and to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with them."
"Post the partition of 1947, this is the first time India witnessed a tragedy with such a massive human cost as thousands of migrant workers and labourers were forced to walk home several hundred kilometres on foot- without food, without medicines, without money, without transportation, without anything except for the desire to return to their families and loved ones. The very thought of their plight is enough to break our hearts as there was also the outpouring of support from fellow Indians for their inspiring resolve," Sonia Gandhi said.