6L migrants in Punjab apply on govt portal to travel home
LUDHIANA: Over six lakh migrants stuck in Punjab amid the lockdown have applied on the government portal, Covid Help Punjab, expressing their desire to travel back to their home states. While the count was around three lakh on Saturday, it doubled within 24 hours, taking the number to six lakh on Sunday, the last day for registration.
As per chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, there are around 10 lakh migrants in the state, of which around seven lakh are based in Ludhiana. Of the total applicants, 3.3 lakh are in Ludhiana while around one lakh are in Jalandhar and 40,000 each are in Amritsar and Mohali.
In terms of their destination, there are around 5 lakh people who have applied for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar while 9,000 of the total applicants are for Jharkhand and the remaining for other states and union territories.
Sumeet Jarangal, nodal officer for the helpline, said that till Sunday over six lakh migrant workers have applied to travel back to their states and a letter has been sent to the governments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand in this regard. “We are waiting for their response on whether they are ready to accept the migrants population or not. After receiving their consent, we will share the details with the railways,” he said.
Apart from this, Punjab has received around 7,000 applications from persons stranded in other states, including Maharashtra, Haryana and Bihar, who want to come back to their native places in Punjab. “Of the total 7,000 persons, around 1,300 are presently in Maharashtra, 400 are in Haryana while the remaining are in Bihar, Gujarat and some other states,” Jarangal said.
RAILWAYS SETS UP TENTS AT STATIONS
Meanwhile, the railways has started setting up tents at the stations to accommodate migrants who will start pouring in to take the trains back home. Thirty tents having a total capacity of 1, 200 persons have been set up at Ludhiana railways station. Similar arrangements have been made at Amritsar, Jalandhary City and Bathinda station too.
Station director Tarun Kumar said that as of now they have not received any details about the number of passengers from the state government but to be on the safe side, they have made preliminary arrangements.