Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the Railways for despatching a train to Kerala without passing on the passenger name record and booking details to the government in advance.
He said such reckless actions imperilled the State’s containment strategy. Kerala cannot afford to have unidentified persons entering the State from epidemic hotspots in other regions. It feared new flare-ups could overwhelm the State’s already stretched health-care system. The threat of community spread loomed. Kerala was struggling hard to stave off such a spectre.
Mr. Vijayan said he had written to Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal pointing out the anomaly. The petition appeared to have fallen on deaf ears. The railways authorised another special train to Kerala without giving the PNR or booking details of those on board.
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‘Dismissive attitude’
Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Goyal did not seem to have a care. His dismissive attitude prompted Mr. Vijayan to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the letter, Mr. Vijayan said he knew the issue was too trivial to take up directly with the Prime Minister. But, Mr. Goyal’s attitude and the Railways action had prompted him to appeal to Mr. Modi directly. Mr. Vijayan asked whether Mr. Goyal had his ear to the ground or understood the depth of the threat and the despair of governments. He seemed to inhabit a space of privileged seclusion.
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He said Mr. Goyal’s statement that the Kerala Chief Minister did not care for the welfare of expatriate Malayalis was unbecoming of his office. “Mr. Goyal is no judge of my actions. The people of Kerala are.”, he said.
Mr. Vijayan said it was unfortunate that Union Minister of State of Foreign Affairs V. Muraleedharan could not sit through the entire length of the videoconference of MPs and MLAs he had hosted. “We presumed he would state the position of the Centre at the end of the conference. But, he left the conference to attend to other duties”.