Migrants examined before leaving for native places

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 10

As many as 63 migrants were medically examined at the Community Health Centre, Shahkot, on Sunday before boarding a bus to the railway station. Senior Medical Officer Dr Amandeep Singh Duggal said Dr Dhiraj Kumar and multipurpose health worker Balkar Singh examined the health of the migrants. “No symptoms of cough or cold were found in any of the migrants,” he said.

• Also read: Over 34K migrants leave Punjab in 6 days

While leaving for his native place, one of the migrant workers said he was waiting for this moment for long and finally, he would reach his home. “It is not that we faced the problem of ration here. We were getting food, but we are away from our families. We cannot wait to reach home,” he said.

Another migrant worker said he will come back when the situation will become normal. “We just want to meet our family members. We will come back when the work will start,” he added.

The state government has arranged trains for migrant workers, who are willing to go to their native states. The migrants are not being charged for traveling by trains.

Till date, the Railways has run trains to Daltonganj, Gajipur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Darbhanga, Bahraich, Sultanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Akbarpur, Kathiyar, Azamgarh, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Barkakhana and Gonda in the past few days.

According to information, the state government has spent around Rs1.09 crore to facilitate more than 20,000 migrants for returning to their respective states from the city.

Administration officials led by Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar and Senior Superintendent of Police Navjot Singh Mahal were on their toes to ensure the smooth and hassle-free movement of the migrants from the district.