Jharkhand government’s decision to disallow stoppages of long-distance Calcutta-bound trains within the state, as a measure to control the spread of the coronavirus, seems to have backfired: many passengers are stopping trains at their convenience by tugging at a chain meant to be used during emergencies and getting off.

Over the last two days, over 90 passengers of two Calcutta-bound trains resorted to this measure, leaving the district administration in a quandary. On Tuesday, 40 passengers got off from the Howrah-bound Mumbai Mail near Chakradharpur in the small hours. On Monday, 52 passengers got down from the Howrah-bound Ahmedabad Express at Tatanagar station.

Senior divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur railway division, Manish Pathak clarified that the two trains were running daily and were different from Shramik specials that are meant exclusively for migrant labours.

'Both the Howrah-Mumbai Mail and Howrah-Ahmedabad Express are two among 100 special trains that have started running since June 1. These trains had stoppages at Tatanagar and Chakradharpur station. But we withdrew these stops on the basis of the June 4 request of the Jharkhand government,' Pathak told The Telegraph Online.

The railways, he added, had sent sms messages to passengers through IRCTC, asking them not to board the two trains if their destination was Tatanagar or Chakradharpur. “But it seems a large number of passengers from Mumbai and Ahmedabad boarded the trains and ultimately got off near their destinations by pulling the chain meant to be used to stop trains only in emergencies,” Patahk said.

On Tuesday, most the 40 passengers who got off the train at Chakradharpur used private cars to go to Jamshedpur, about 80km away. The others stayed at local lodges, sources said.

On Monday, the railway police were on alert in Jamshedpur. They knew the Howrah-bound Ahmedabad Express wasn’t supposed to stop at Tatanagar station. So when it did, policemen confined all the 52 passengers who got off.

A team officials from the health department and local administration conducted medical examinations of all passengers before prescribing home quarantine for 14 days.

The East Singhbhum district administration did not seem particularly concerned about the issue. Deputy commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla did not respond to calls made by this website. Additional district magistrate (law and order) Nand Kishore Lal, who is nodal officer for facilitating the transportation of migrant labourers by Shramik specials, said he wasn’t aware that regular trains were not being allowed Tatanagar stops.

But health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni clarified why the state government did not want the two trains to stop at Tatanagar in East Singhbhum district and Chakradharpur in West Singhbhum district.

'It was a decision by the Jharkhand government not to allow stoppage of any train that start from coronavirus hotspots like Mumbai and Ahmedabad,' Kulkarni told The Telegraph Online.

At the time of reporting, the state health department had not initiated efforts to contact those who got off at Chakradharpur on Tuesday even though the train was travelling from Mumbai.

A senior official at Tatanagar station observed, “Had the stoppages at Tatanagar and Chakradharpur not been withdrawn for Howrah-Mumbai Mail and Howrah-Ahmedabad Express, all passengers would have got off at the respective stations. And they could have been screened. Who knows how many among those who got off near Chakradharpur are carriers of the deadly virus?”