A special train from Delhi to Kerala will conduct service on May 20. The decision was conveyed to Keralites stranded in the capital city by the resident commissioner of Kerala House in a message.
As per the message, persons in Delhi who have registered their names with NoRKA to go back to Kerala have to SMS their NoRKA ID and name to 8800748647 before 10 am today. Those who have already sent the details and people from other states need not send the messages.
The decision has been made amid threat by a section of Keralite students that they would walk back to Kerala in protest against the state government's callous attitude to bring them home. Nearly 50 students were all set to start peddling to home from the premises of the Kerala House at 4 pm today if there were no official communication regarding the train before that.
“We received the message last night and we confirmed its authenticity from the Kerala House officials. Hence we are dropping the plan to protest,” Zakkir, a student of Jamia Milia University, who was at the forefront of coordinating the efforts to arrange a train, told Onmanorama.
There are around 350 Keralite students of various institutions stranded in Delhi. These students, who had registered with NoRKA, were expecting a special Shramik train on May 15. However, their plans went awry as the Railway announced to run a special Rajdhani train on May 13. With that, the Kerala government asked the students to use that facility instead of the Shramik special train. However, many could not afford the ticket rates which went up to Rs 3000-7000 as per dynamic pricing.
Though they tried to arrange a special train again and even helped the Kerala House prepare a fresh list of stranded students, the Kerala chief minister on May 14 said there would be no special train and the students will have to book tickets only through the IRCTC portal once it is ready.
The students alleged that the Kerala government was neither ready to pay the deposit amount of Rs 15 lakh to the Indian Railways nor to receive the money from organisations that were ready to pay it. “The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee and the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre were ready to raise the funds for the students. But the authorities in Kerala House said they cannot accept the money as it would cause political controversies,” said Sneha, a student of Delhi University and the national coordinator of NSUI.
As the students announced their plan to walk home, CM Pinarayi on Friday (May 15) said there would be a decision on the train within two days.