Over 27,000 migrants leave on 23 trains from Punjab, Chandigarh
LUDHIANA/KAPURTHALA: Over 27,000 migrants left for their home states on 23 trains that departed from Chandigarh and different stations of Punjab on Friday.
Of these, 17 trains are operated by the Ferozepur division, including eight that departed from Ludhiana, five from Jalandhar city, and two each from Amritsar and Ferozepur. As many as six trains left from the stations of Ambala Division, including two each from SAS Nagar and Chandigarh, and one each from Sirhind and Patiala.
Divisional railway manager Rajesh Agrawal said that the maximum number of trains from the Northern region were flagged off from the Ferozepur Division.
“Around 1.25 lakh migrants have been sent home on 104 trains, of which 73 left for Uttar Pradesh, 22 for Bihar, four for Jharkhand, two for Madhya Pradesh, and one each for Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal,” said the DRM.
312 BOARD RAJDHANI SPECIAL IN LUDHIANA
As many as 312 passengers boarded the special Rajdhani Express running between New Delhi and Jammu Tawi, from Ludhiana. Of these, 175 persons boarded the train to New Delhi while 137 travelled to Jammu Tawi. The passengers were screened and train was sanitised before they were allowed to board. Also, 281 people de-boarded the train at city railway station, 81 travelled from Jammu Tawi and 200 from New Delhi.
WORKERS THRONG GOVT HOSPITALS FOR SCREENING
Eager to return home in the ‘Shramik Express’ trains being run by the state government from Jalandhar, migrants threw social distancing guidelines to the wind and thronged the government hospitals for mandatory screening on Friday.
Authorities had a tough time managing the rush of migrants
apart from regular patients.
No trains are running from Kapurthala and migrants are going to Jalandhar to board the train.
Workers are allowed to deposit their travel forms when found healthy, which makes them eligible to board the special trains.
Dr Sandeep Dhawan of the civil hospital said around 4,000 migrants had been screened and given a fitness certification.