Every single request of states to facilitate transportation of migrants considered: Minister Singh

The Centre is seriously considering every single request of state governments to facilitate transportation of migrant workers, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Saturday.

During a video conference with chief secretaries and senior officials of the eight northeastern states, Singh said a mechanism has been put in place to receive the list of passengers from governments of the northeastern region while the Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) coordinates with resident commissioners and nodal officers for smooth transportation of migrant workers and other people.

Every request from any state government is being seriously followed up, he said.

Singh, the minister for DoNER, cited an example from Friday when a train from Gujarat going to Guwahati accommodated passengers of different states, including Meghalaya.

In response to a demand from certain states for the resumption of flight services to Guwahati, Singh said the decision will be taken at an appropriate time by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

About the resumption of more trains, he said the matter has already been taken up with the Railway Ministry and they have started working on these lines.

During the video conference, the minister discussed COVID-19 follow up with chief secretaries and senior officers, a press release said.

In the conference, representatives from governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura provided inputs regarding the current scenario about the movement of migrant labourers and others from different parts of the country, the impact of prime minister's Rs 20 lakh crore economic package and assessment about the relaxations to be given in the days to come.

Singh put on record his appreciation of the manner in which all the state governments had conducted judiciously and intelligently in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result of this, he said, the northeast has been appreciated all over for the manner in which it managed to contain the spread of the virus.

Singh said one of the priorities of the Ministry of DoNER in the coming days would be to resume the work of development projects which got held up.

He said an attempt would be made to put it on fast track so that the scheduled timelines could be met.

The chief secretaries also gave their assessment about the feasibility of bringing about relaxations in the respective states and different areas in the days to come.