Why no bogies for migrants, asks court

HYDERABAD: Vexed with lame excuses put forth by South Central Railway (SCR) officials and their failure to help migrants stranded due the lockdown, the Telangana high court has directed the divisional railway manager (DRM), Secunderabad, to appear before the court on Tuesday.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy on Monday gave the direction while hearing PILs seeking transport, food and accommodation for the stranded migrants.
The bench heard the reasons put forth by SCR counsel Pushpender Kaur, who pleaded inability to provide extra bogies and sufficient berths under emergency quota in regular trains. Petitioners’ counsel Vasudha Nagaraj told the court that of 185 migrants, staying near the Secunderabad railway station, 90 of them were provided transport to their native places by some good Samaritans. “Even now, there are 95 migrants looking for transport. Of them, 47 are from Patna,” she added. The bench sought to know why SCR cannot make arrangements to the migrants from Patna at one go.
“When will you become sensible enough to apply the same rules in favour of the poor and impoverished? When you can earmark special bogies for marriage parties, why cant you do it for poor migrants? That too when ordered by Supreme Court itself,” the CJ asked the SCR counsel.
The bench also refused to believe the contents of a report filed by the collector who said only 60 people were staying at the shelter.