Published 17:21 IST, May 7th 2020
Uttar Pradesh ferries back 50,000 migrant labourers in 43 trains; 1 lakh return till date
In a major development, Uttar Pradesh's Additional Chief Secretary Home Avnish Kumar Awasthi announced that over 50,000 migrant workers had arrived in state
In a major development, Uttar Pradesh's Additional Chief Secretary Home Avnish Kumar Awasthi announced that over 50,000 migrant workers had arrived in the state in 43 'Shramik' trains on Thursday. He added that about 15500-15600 labourers were expected to arrive in 12 trains later in the day. Currently, Uttar Pradesh has 2998 cases with 1130 recovered and 60 fatalities.
Uttar Pradesh brings back over 1 lakh migrants
In the daily press briefing, Awasthi said," Today 43 trains have arrived in the state carrying migrant laborers. With the help of these trains, 51371 workers arrived from different states. Today 12 more trains will arrive before 12 o'clock, about 15500-15600 laborers will come". The government is currently planning to bring back all its migrant population across back home.
Detailing the number of labourers who arrived from different parts of the country, he added, "32599 from Gujarat, more than 7000 from Maharashtra, 4700 from Punjab, around 2400 from Telangana, 1200 from Karnataka". Talking about the first phase of migrant arrival via buses, he stated, "11200 from Haryana, 6000 from Madhya Pradesh, more than 10,000 from Rajasthan, 1500 from Uttarakhand, more than 12000 students from Kota, 15,000 students from Prayagraj have gone to their homes. In this way, about 55700 people have come from the first phase of roadways buses".
UP's migrant plan
Amid the second phase of the lockdown, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath sent 250 buses to ferry back 7000 UP students from Kota. Following Adityanath's lead, states like Assam, Jharkhand, Maharashtra too ferried thousands of students back home via buses. After the MHA allowed the movement of stranded tourists, migrant labourers across the nation, several states like Bihar, Chhatisgarh arranged buses for the ferrying students. The state government has estimated that around 5 to 10 lakh migrant workers would return to the state in the next two months and has begun chalking a strategy to bring back stranded workers in a phased manner.
Updated 17:21 IST, May 7th 2020