The Centre on Friday issued an order allowing the movement of special trains to ferry migrant workers and others stranded outside their home states in the lockdown, two days after ordering that they would be transported by buses that states would organise.

The order by the Union home ministry was issued at 4.21pm, several hours after the first train carrying 1,200 migrant workers had left Telangana for Jharkhand.

“Movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons, stranded at different places, is also allowed by special trains to be operated by ministry of railways,” the order said, exposing once again the lack of lockdown planning.

An officer distributes bananas among people who had arrived in Allahabad from Madhya Pradesh on Thursday before they boarded a bus to be sent back to their native villages in Uttar Pradesh on Friday. (AP)

The railway ministry would designate nodal officers to coordinate with the states and Union Territories and would issue guidelines for sale of tickets, and social distancing and other safety measures, the order said.

Millions of workers were left stranded by the lockdown, announced on a four-hour notice by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24.

On Wednesday, the Centre finally woke up to the problem and allowed them to return home, but by buses. Several chief ministers requested that trains be run and the Opposition Congress on Friday described the bus proposal as “madness” and asked: “Why not trains?”