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Yogi urges migrants not to walk, cycle home
When so many trains are coming, the CM said there is no need for anyone to walk to reach home and they should come back as per the proper arrangement made for them
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has appealed to migrant workers not to walk or travel by bicycle on their way home as doing so could put their health and safety at risk.
The chief minister issued the appeal after reviewing the return of migrant workers, additional chief secretary, home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said at a press conference on Friday.
His appeal came on a day 16 migrants were crushed under a goods train in Maharashtra when they were sleeping on rail tracks during their return home in Madhya Pradesh. They had fallen asleep on the tracks due to exhaustion after walking for several kilometres.
The chief minister also said the state government was arranging for the safe return of every worker and labourer in coordination with all the state governments, the senior bureaucrat informed.
On the chief minister’s instructions, Shramik Special trains were being operated regularly for Uttar Pradesh. Till Friday, 69 trains had either arrived or were en route to UP, the official said. These trains arrived at railway stations in 40 districts of the state. Around 76 trains will reach UP in the next two days.
“When so many trains are coming, the CM said there is no need for anyone to walk to reach home and they should come back as per the proper arrangement made for them,” Awasthi said.
“Today (Friday), 11 trains have arrived, and 16 more will reach by night. They will together bring about 30,000 people from different parts of the country in a day,” he said.
The chief minister has ordered officials to keep UPSRTC buses available in every district. About 10,000 UPSRTC buses had been deployed during the Covid-19 crisis. It was a record that such a large number of people were being sent home on trains and buses, he said.
Awasthi stressed that Uttar Pradesh was ready to bring back all those willing to return if the state they were currently staying provided a detailed list and health certificate of the migrants.
The senior government official said the return of migrants from Sharjah by air on Saturday was also discussed during the meeting. An Air India flight with around 200 Indians from Sharjah is scheduled to arrive in Lucknow on Saturday. The Indian government on Monday had announced plans to begin a phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7.
Awasthi said another flight that landed in Delhi on Friday carried 20 people from Ghaziabad and Noida. The chief minister had said those coming from abroad should be screened and kept in quarantine centres before they could be allowed to go home, the senior official said.
