Punjab CM requests Shah, Thackeray to evacuate stranded devotees

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, requesting them to facilitate the evacuation of devotees stranded at Nanded Sahib gurdwara.

Taking to Twitter, Chief Minister Singh posted two letters written to Shah and Thackeray respectively.

In the letter to the Home Minister, Singh requested him to consider evacuating the people from Nanded through special trains or flights at the earliest.

"I am writing to draw your urgent attention to the issues of around 2000 pilgrims from Punjab who had gone to pay obeisance at the historic gurdwara Hazur Sahib in Nanded in Maharashtra," Singh wrote in the letter.

Due to the cancellation of trains some days back and the nation-wide lockdown, there is no possibility of their being brought to Punjab without special approval of the Government of India, he added.

The State government has already taken up the matter with the Ministry of Railways to allow plying of special trains to evacuate these stranded pilgrims.

"Our officers have been in touch with the District Administration of Nanded and I have also written to CM, Maharashtra for making suitable interim arrangements for their lodging in Nanded," he added.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday confirmed that five people from a family in Sangli and four others from Mumbai tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total count to 116, which is the highest in any state of the country.