Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday strongly opposed the Narendra Modi government’s decision to restore passenger train services in the country, while his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy strongly supported the move and wanted removal of all restrictions on inter-state transport.
Both the chief ministers presented divergent views during the video conference with the Prime Minister in the afternoon. KCR said the decision to reintroduce passenger train services across the country would result in spreading of Covid-19 in the country.
He said the number of Coronavirus cases were very high in major cities in the country, particularly in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad which account for huge number of positive cases in the country.
“Under these circumstances, if passenger trains are operated, people in large numbers travel from one city to another and it is not possible to trace if there are any Covid-19 patients among them,” he said.
He said it was also not possible to conduct tests for everybody and it is also not possible to quarantine such large number of train passengers.
“So, it is better avoid running of passenger trains so hurriedly in the present circumstances,” the chief minister said.
However, Jagan indirectly supported the restoration of passenger trains. What is more, he demanded that all kinds of public transport be restored by removing all restrictions immediately.
He told the Prime Minister that unless the public transport is restored, people cannot revive their normal activity, including migrant labourers and common citizens and unless there is a public transport facility, economic activity cannot come back to normal. He, however, said adequate care should be taken to prevent spread of Covid-19.
