Policy of providing buses, trains to transport migrant workers poorly implemented: Chidambaram

The policy of providing buses and trains to transport migrant workers was poorly designed, coordinated and implemented, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Friday, as he slammed the government for the "belated" decision on their transportation while lakhs of people had begun their trek home.

His sharp attack on the government came over the death of 14 migrant workers in a train accident in Maharashtra's Aurangabad. The workers sleeping on rail tracks were crushed to death by a goods train on Friday morning.

"Two days ago I had tweeted why the central and state governments are oblivious of the fact that thousands of migrant workers are still trudging to their home states," Chidambaram said. "It is obvious that the transport policy of providing buses and trains to transport migrant workers was poorly designed, planned, coordinated and implemented," he said in a series of tweets.

The decision to provide buses and trains was "hopelessly belated", he alleged, adding that lakhs of persons had already begun their trek to their home states when the decision was made.

Once the policy was announced, the government should have gone to the rescue of the trekkers and provided buses or trains to them to continue their journey, the former Union minister said. "The tragedy that happened this morning could have been avoided if governments had gone to the rescue of the migrant workers in time," Chidambaram said.