Mohali admn spends ₹1.33 crore on sending migrant workers back home
MOHALI:Mohali district has run up a tab of ₹1.33 crore to ferry migrant workers back home to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar due to the Covid-19 lockdown, even as 15,000 workers and their families were sent back in a week, deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan said on Thursday.
There was also a 30% drop in the number of migrants wanting to go back as industries opened and farming jobs were renewed because of paddy transplantation.
On the budget for a train journey, Dayalan said running a Shramik Special cost ₹9 lakh, tickets amounted to ₹7.5 lakh, 60 buses to transport labourers to the railway station meant an additional ₹1.25 lakh. Water and refreshments for the journey cost ₹30,000.
Eight trains have left Mohali for various destinations in Bihar and UP in a week, Dayalan said, adding that the money was being spent from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and funding of ₹2.18 crore allocated by the Punjab government for Mohali out of ₹53.43 crore for all districts in the state to tackle the crisis.
On how the administration started sending back the workers from May 7, Dayalan said data was compiled, statistics worked out and district wise departure schedule planned. First, districts where a large chunk of workers belonged to, such as Hardoi in UP, were targeted and then others were sent to multiple adjacent destinations.
30% DROP IN WORKERS WANTING TO GO BACK
Dayalan said about 30% migrants registering to go home had decided not to do so with easing of restrictions in labour-intensive sectors coupled with work opportunities in paddy transplantation. However, the administration was “geared up to help others wanting to return. In fact, we are also going to extend boarding facility from Mohali to the migrants from Ropar and Nawanshahar seeking to go back to districts listed by the Mohali administration,” he said.