Over 5k migrant labourers return to UP from Madhya Pradesh

Over 5,000 migrant labourers returned to Uttar Pradesh on Friday from Madhya Pradesh in 155 buses and their medical check-ups were being conducted, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said.

He said 5,259 labourers from Madhya Pradesh arrived in the state and 1,341 labourers belonging to MP were sent to their native place in 50 buses.

Awasthi said 6,500 migrant labourers from Rajasthan and 1,500 from Uttarakhand will be returning to UP on Saturday.

"The exchange of labourers with Madhya Pradesh has been completed. Their medica examination is being conducted again," he said.

Briefing reporters about a high-level meeting held by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Awasthi said so far around four lakh migrant workers have arrived from Delhi and 12,000 from Haryana.

"This work is being done in a phased manner," he said.

In the meeting, Adityanath asked the nodal officers to remain available on phone round-the-clock to ensure smooth return of migrant workers to the state.

The UP chief minister wrote a letter to his counterparts in Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra on Thursday, asking for the details of migrant workers stranded due to the lockdown imposed across the country to contain the spread of coronavirus, Awasthi said.

Adityanath reviewed the arrangements made for quarantine of all those returning to the state and stressed that there should not be any laxity in their medical examination.