Karnataka govt makes U-turn; To run spl trains for sending back migrant workers home

Taking a U-turn, the Karnataka

government has decided to deploy special trains from Friday to send back stranded migrant workers to their natives and sought approval of receiving states for the process, days after it abruptly withdrew a request sent to the Railways.

On Thursday, the government wrote to Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha conveying it's decision and seeking their consent for receving the workers, official sources said.

In separate letters, state Principal Revenue Secretary N Manjunatha Prasad, who is also the Nodal Officer for Migrant labourers movement, asked his counterparts to give in principle approval for movement of special trains everyday, starting from Friday.

Prasad informed his Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal counterparts that Karnataka intends to run two trains to the states a day till May 15 for ferrying the thousands of migrant workers stranded in .