Adityanath urges migrants to not walk, cycle home, says govt has made proper arrangement

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday asked officials to reach out to their counterparts in other states for better coordination in bringing the migrants home and urged the workers to not walk or cycle to Uttar Pradesh as this could endanger their health and security.

His appeal came on a day 16 migrants were crushed under a goods train in Maharashtra when they were sleeping on rail tracks during their return home in Madhya Pradesh.

They had slept on the tracks due to exhaustion after walking for several kilometres.

Though the government has been running special trains to ferry migrants, many of them have started their journey home on foot or a bicycle, saying they could not wait for their turn any longer due to lack of food and employment.

Adityanath, whose government sent buses to Kota in Rajasthan to bring back students, reiterated the migrants should not walk or cycle as this could prove detrimental to their health and security.

During a review meeting, Adityanath also asked UP government officials to treat those returning to the state with honour.

Later, speaking about the meeting, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said a "proper arrangement" has been put in place for the return of migrants from other states.

Awasthi stressed that Uttar Pradesh was ready to bring bring back all those willing to return if the state they are currently staying provides a detailed list and health certificate of the migrants.

Till Friday evening, he said, 69 trains with migrants have arrived in the state.

"When so many trains are coming, the CM said there is no need for anyone to walk to reach home and they should come back as per the proper arrangement made for them," Awasthi said.

Today, 11 trains have arrived, and 16 more will reach by night. They will together bring about 30,000 people from different parts of the country in a day," he said.

Apart from that, about 10,000 UP Transport Corporation buses are ferrying migrants to their homes safely, the senior government official said.

He said the return of migrants from Sharjah on Saturday was also discussed during the meeting, and said the flight that landed in Delhi on Friday carried 20 people from Ghaziabad and Noida.

Adityanath said those coming from abroad should be screened and kept in quarantine centres before they could be allowed to go home. He asked Chief Medical Officers of all districts to study patient record, prepare a case history and continue pool testing to increase capacity.

The Jansunwai portal is open for registration of those willing to return to their state and the response is good, he said.

He said the government has segregated hospitals to treat COVID and non-COVID patients and this could help in effectively controlling the outbreak.

The chief minister directed the fire department to ensure regular sanitization of hotspots and areas near hospitals as well as offices and market areas.

He said measures should be adopted to run emergency services in the hospitals.

He directed officials to ensure that the lockdown is followed strictly and in hotspot areas, sanitisation and door-step deliver of goods be ensure on priority.

The CM also asked them to speed up the delivery of fodder to cow shelters.