J&K govt evacuates 1.09 lakh stranded residents

The Jammu and Kashmir government has so far brought back over 1.09 lakh residents of the Union territory stranded in other parts of the country due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, an official said on Thursday.

The returnees came on special buses and trains amid strict observance of all necessary guidelines and standard operating procedures (SoPs).

As per official data received in this regard, the administrations of Jammu and Kashmir districts have received 43 special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations from different states and UTs, so far, with 33,532 stranded passengers while 75,826 people have been evacuated by the government through Lakhanpur.

Cumulatively, 1,09,358 J&K residents stranded outside the UT have been brought back by the government after strictly observing all necessary preventive measures regarding the virus, an official spokesperson said.

As per the detailed break-up of figures, 869 stranded passengers have entered through Lakhanpur from June 3 to the morning of June 4 while 827 passengers have reached Jammu aboard the 22nd Delhi COVID special train.

So far, 22 trains have reached Jammu with a total of 17,836 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 15,696 passengers have reached Udhampur in 21 special trains.

As per the official communiqué, the 75,826 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur till June 2 (morning) included 19,849 from Punjab, 22,198 from Himachal Pardesh, 25 from Andhra Pardesh, 7,061 from Delhi, 1,404 from Gujarat, 3,344 from Rajasthan, 4,374 from Haryana, 162 from Chhattisgarh, 3,677 from Uttarakhand (88 from Dehradun), 1,102 from Maharashtra, 4,773 from Uttar Pradesh, 64 from Odisha, 268 from Assam, 1,207 from Madhya Pradesh, 1,447 from Chandigarh, 698 from Telangana, 122 from Karnataka, 75 from Tamil Nadu (52 from Chennai), 327 from Bihar, 171 from West Bengal, 113 from Jharkhand, three from Goa along with 3,271 from the rest of the states and UTs. Three persons returned from Nepal as well.