BS Yeddyurappa-led government has cancelled all special trains meant to ferry migrants back to their home towns starting Wednesday (May 6), a move that reportedly comes after a meeting between state officials and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI).

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The government wrote a letter to the South Western Railways on Tuesday, stating that train services will not be required starting Wednesday. The state had earlier asked the railways to arrange two train services every day for five days

Post the meeting with builders, chief minister Yediyurappa tweeted:

“Barring red zones, business, construction work and industrial activities have to be resumed. In this context, it was explained that unnecessary travel of the migrant workers has to be controlled."

The chief minister said he had given directions to ministers to convince the labourers to refrain from returning to their home states. Following this, the nodal officer for migrant issues Manjunatha Prasad wrote to the South Western Railways stating they are withdrawing request for train services from Wednesday.

CREDAI Bengaluru chapter president Kishore Jain Told CNBC-TV18 that the builders association had raised concerns over mass exodus of migrant workers

"We raised concerns of false information to workers that they are being evacuated. We asked government to assure them that construction activity will resume. We also recommended that the government incentivise migrant labourers,” Jain said.

The Karnataka government has announced compensation package of Rs 1,610 crore for affected farmers and workers on Wednesday. The CM said the state will transfer Rs 3,000 each to 15.8 lakh building workers, which is is in addition to Rs 2,000 already transferred.

First Published:May 6, 2020 4:51 PM IST