Karnataka government has decided to cancel all trains meant for migrants to send those stranded to their hometowns after chief minister BS Yediyurappa met property builders.

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The state nodal officer for inter-state travel wrote a letter to South Western Railway (SWR) saying no more train services will be required.

The letter dated May 5 read, "We had requested to arrange to run two train services every day for 5 days (total 10 train services) except for tomorrow i.e. 06.05.2020 for which three trains can be arranged and and the time of departure can be at 9.00 am., 12.00 noon and 3.00 pm departing from Bengaluru to Dhanapur, Bihar. Since the train services are not required from tomorrow, the letter cited under reference above is withdrawn."

"The COVID-19 situation in the state is in control as compared to other states. Barring the red zones, business, construction work and industrial activities have to be resumed. In this background, it was explained that unnecessary travel of the migrant workers has to be controlled," Yediyurappa said after the meeting, as quoted by News18.

According to the News18 report, Karnataka has more than 2 lakh migrant labourers from different parts of the country as well as from Bangladesh and Nepal. Over 80,000 of them are from Orissa and about 70,000 are from Bihar, it said, citing the labour department's records taken during the pandemic.

First Published:May 6, 2020 1:01 PM IST