Jharkhand maintaining district-wise logbook of returnees to ensure they get food, accommodation

With a large number of migrant workers returning to their homes from different parts of the country, the Jharkhand government is maintaining a district-wise logbook containing their details to ensure they get food, accommodation and medicines at their native places, official sources said on Friday.

The logbooks at the district level have information about the returnees collected by officials while talking to them over phone, the sources said.

After returning to the state, the migrant workers are transported by buses to their native places where they are quarantined as per the COVID-19 protocols.

The first special train run by the railways after suspension of its operation due to the lockdown ferried around 1200 migrant workers from Lingampally in Telangana to Hatia in Ranchi on the World Labour day (May 1).

The 24-coach train was the first in the country to transport stranded migrant workers after the Centre had permitted inter-state movement by relaxing the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Since then, thousands of migrant workers and students have come back to the state by special trains from far-off places like Kerala, Telangana, Kota in Rajasthan and Punjab.

Many others travelled back home in buses from Punjab, Telangana and Chhattisgarh, among others.

To help people from other states who are stranded in Jharkhand, the state government has launched 'Jharkhand sahayata portal' where they can register themselves, an official statement said.

These people can register themselves on http://covid19reg.jharkhand.gov.in/ and the state government will make arrangements for their return, it said.

Taking to Twitter, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Friday praised pravasis (migrants) of Jharkhand, who could not come home so far, for showing patience in the times of crisis and assured them that the state was making efforts to run more trains to bring them back.

The government has appointed deputy officials for coordinating movement of migrant workers and others stuck in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, the statement said.