Centre allows inter-state movement of stranded migrant workers, students

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 29

The government today issued an order allowing movement of migrant workers, tourists, pilgrims, students and others stranded at various places across the country amid the Covid-19 lockdown to reach their respective native places.

In the order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Centre has asked state governments to appoint nodal officers to facilitate the movement of people within the state and between states. The order says all seeking to return should be screened first and allowed to return only if they are found to be asymptomatic.

During the chief ministers interaction with Prime Minister Narednra Modi on Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had raised the issue claiming that the state government would not facilitate return of students from Kota, Rajasthan, till the Centre allowed movement of all, including stranded migrant labourers.

In the order, the MHA has asked all state governments and Union Territory (UT) administrations to make necessary arrangements for return of its residents only through buses. Sources in the MHA added that there was no plan to start special trains for the initiative and only travel by road had been allowed.

The lockdown has left a huge number of students and migrant labourers stranded in various parts of the country. Over the past few days, there have been individual efforts by some states to bring standed residents home.

According to reports, the Jammu & Kashmir administration in the past four days has made arrangements to bring back over 6,000 labourers and students of the Union Territory, who were stranded in various parts of the country. With this, the total count of those brought back to the UT reached to over 17,700 people, it is said.

Punjab, on Monday, had written to the Delhi government to grant permission to bring back 220 people stranded in the national capital’s gurdwara Majnu Ka Tilla.

It was also reported that the Centre had helped in arranging over 65 buses to ferry more than 3,800 stranded fishermen from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, the Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh governments also arranged 70 and 300 buses, respectively, to bring back thousands of students belonging to their states stuck in Kota.

Even Madhya Pradesh, on Sunday, had begun the process of bringing back stranded students and migrant workers back to the state.

MHA guidelines for movement of stranded persons

-States/UTs to appoint nodal authorities and develop standard protocol for receiving and sending persons

-All stranded persons are to be registered with the sending and receiving states

-In case of inter-state movement of such persons, consult each other and mutually agree to the movement by road

-Only those who are found to be asymptomatic will be allowed to proceed

-Buses shall be used for transport, vehicles will be sanitised and travellers would follow social distancing norms in seating

-States/UTs falling on the transit route will allow the passage of such persons to the receiving states/UTs

-On arrival to the destination states/UTs, such person should kept in home quarantine, and if required, in institutional quarantine

-Such persons may be encouraged to use “Arogya Setu” app through which their health status can be monitored/tracked