West Bengal
Migrant Workers Throw Away Stale Food Served on Special Train at Asansol Station
|The train was reportedly carrying migrant workers from Ernakulam in Kerala to Danapur in Bihar. They were served cooked food and water at the Asansol railway station which was one of the stoppages on the route.
In a now-viral video, passengers can be seen throwing away food packets off a train at Asansol Railway Station in West Bengal.
According to reports, the video was recorded on Monday, May 4.
The train was reportedly carrying migrant workers from Ernakulam in Kerala to Danapur in Bihar. They were served cooked food and water at the Asansol railway station which was one of the stoppages on the route.
In one video, the migrant labourers are throwing the stale food off the compartment window screaming "murdabad", irritated with the authorities inefficiency.
#VIDEO: Shocking visuals from #Asansol. This is a train with migrant workers that left from Kerala and was headed for Danapur, #Bihar. Was passing by Asansol where they were allegedly given stale food. This is the migrants throwing the food on the platform. @TheQuint #IndiaNews pic.twitter.com/xxYsQBMu36
— Ishadrita Lahiri (@ishadrita) May 6, 2020
"Continue discharging your duty like this while we die for food," yelled one of the workers at the police officials deployed at the station.
In another video that made rounds on social media, the migrants can be heard complaining that they threw the food after realising it was stale and had a foul odour.
Hello @RailMinIndia, passengers travelling in Shramik train from #Kerala to #Danapur complained of being served stale food at #Asansol station. The food packets were thrown by them on the platform in protest. Please ensure safe edible food for migrants. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/AltaHdbENw
— Sreyashi Dey (@SreyashiDey) May 5, 2020
Eastern Railways PRO, Ekalabya Chakraborty, told The Quint that there were reports over the quality of food being served on a few train coaches.
He assured that the mistake was rectified and the workers were provided with proper food in the next station.
"The food arrangement was made by IRCTC. In some coaches, it was reported that the food was not up to the mark. There is no question of denial. There were problems with the food. Because of the paucity of time, we couldn't rectify it at the Asansol station itself. However, we arranged for food again in the next station," said Chakraborty.
"It was a mishap, yes. But we tried to rectify it," he added.
The video and several other reports in the recent past have brought to the fore the unfortunate conditions of the country's migrant workers who are part of the unorganised sector and form the crux of India's economy.