Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said her government was planning to allow 100 more trains to bring back people stranded in other states, but made it clear that railway services would be allowed in phases as the state would have to conduct health screening of all passengers.

“We are planning to allow 100 more trains to bring back those who are outside. We will inform when and where the trains will start after we complete the plan,” said the chief minister.

The Mamata government has already allowed 10 trains to bring back stranded people from states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan and Kerala, which would reach Bengal in the next few days. The first train of this phase from Bangalore reached Bankura on Tuesday and the rest would reach the state in the next two-three days.

The chief minister explained why the state wanted the trains to arrive in phases.

“Those 100 trains would be allowed in phases. I cannot allow so many people at one go because everybody has to be screened. We have to ensure safety. It has to be ensured that nobody gets into trouble,” said Mamata.

Senior officials said not only screening of health, bringing back stranded people from other states involved a series of activities.

“First, we cannot screen thousands of people at one go. Secondly, arranging transportation for the passengers from the terminating stations is also a tough task. Moreover, we have limited institutional quarantine facilities. So, the best way is to bring people in phases,” said an official.

The chief minister, however, said more than one lakh people, who were stranded in different states, had already entered the state in the past few days. “About 90,000 people have entered the state in buses, private cars and even on foot,” said Mamata.

Sources in the state administration said the chief minister revealed the figure to counter the BJP’s campaign that Bengal was opposing entry of migrant labourers.

“The Opposition was targeting the government by citing that only three trains had reached the state. But it went unnoticed that so many people had come back from neighbouring states by buses and private cars in the past few days,” said an official.

Mamata blamed the lack of planning by the Centre for the plight of the migrant workers.

“If there was a proper planning, such problems could have been averted.”

“Their health would not have deteriorated. Many of them are being inflicted with Covid-19 only because they could not take care of their health,” said the chief minister.

She said lack of proper food also left them in trouble as they suffered from deficiency of immunity.

“If they had come earlier, we could have given them required food,” said the chief minister.

Mamata also pointed out that the migrant workers from Bengal were not taken care of properly by some other states during the lockdown, which made them desperate to return homes.

“If special trains were operated earlier, these people could have reached home earlier. People who are in Bengal for the past two months, they faced no problem,” said the chief minister.

“Those who want to come back mainly in buses, please let us know in advance. We are facing trouble with those coming in buses and cars. We have to conduct health screening. If they come to the borders in midnight, we could not do anything,” said the chief minister.