5 days on, 34,000 migrants from Punjab leave for home states
LUDHIANA:OVER 13 lakh migrants from Punjab, including over 6.5 lakh from Ludhiana, have registered to return to their native places in Shramik special trains started by the government. From the Ferozepur division of the Northern Railways, 34,000 migrants have so far left for the hometowns in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh in the last five days, as per officials.
On Saturday, four trains, carrying over 4,700 migrants, left for Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Kishanganj (Bihar), Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) and Gonda (Uttar Pradesh) from Ludhiana while three trains, with over 3,500 migrants, left from Jalandhar to Katihar (Bihar), Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) and Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh).
The special portal started by the Punjab government for registration of migrants wanting to go home has so far seen 13 lakh registrations. On May 2, the day it was launched, the portal saw as many as 3 lakh registrations, which jumped to 6 lakh within 24 hours.
Nodal officer of Punjab helpline, Sumeet Jarangal said that of the total 13 lakh registrations, 6.5 lakh are from Ludhiana, 1.5 lakh from Jalandhar, over 1 lakh from SAS Nagar (Mohali), over 80,000 from Amritsar and other parts of the state.
So far, 15 trains have departed from Ludhiana, 14 from Jalandhar and one from Amritsar. On Sunday, five trains are scheduled to depart from Ludhiana. These include the train to Hardoi (Uttar Pradesh) at 11.00am, Bettiah (Bihar) at 2.00pm, Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh) at 5.00pm, Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) at 8.00pm and Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) at 11.00pm.