Process to bring migrants home to begin on Saturday: U'khand CM

The Uttarakhand government will on Saturday start the process to bring back people stranded in different parts of the country, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said on Friday.

Over 86,000 people have registered in the last 24 hours, expressing their desire to come back, he said, adding that 26,000 of them are in Delhi.

"Bringing such a large number of people home while strictly maintaining social distancing norms and following the COVID-19 protocol is a huge exercise which can be carried out only in a phased manner," he said.

"Initially, the migrants will be brought in buses but buses cannot be enough to transport such a large population. So we are also in talks with the Centre to start running special trains for the purpose," he said.

The state government has requested railway minister Piyush Goyal to start at least 12 special trains to ferry the migrants.

Special trains have been demanded for Delhi-Dehradun, Delhi-Haldwani, Chandigarh-Dehradun, Lucknow-Dehradun, Jaipur-Dehradun, Jaipur-Haldwani, Mumbai-Dehradun, Mumbai-Haldwani, Bhopal-Dehradun, Bangalore-Dehradun and Ahmedabad-Dehradun routes, Rawat said.

However, the chief minister made it clear that the migrants will be properly screened before the start of their journey and after their arrival here.

Those found infected will not be allowed to proceed to their homes straight away, he said.

"Such people will be stopped in Dehradun, Haridwar, Rudrapur and Haldwani and permitted to proceed to their homes only after recovery," Rawat said.

From May 4, all districts in Uttarakhand except Haridwar, which falls in the red zone, will be free of curbs but malls, gyms, cinema halls swimming pools etc will remain closed as earlier.

Government offices will also start functioning with 50 per cent staff in the first phase from May 4.

The chief minister has also appealed to private medical practitioners to open their OPDs for the convenience of people.