Special train to bring back UP migrant workers from Nashik on Sunday

A special train bringing 845 stranded migrant workers back to Uttar Pradesh will arrive here on Sunday from Nashik in Maharashtra.

The special train with 845 migrant workers from Maharashtra started from Nashik this morning and it will arrive in the state capital via Jhansi and Kanpur on Sunday, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said.

This will be the first special train to arrive in Uttar Pradesh with stranded migrant workers.

On Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's directives, talks are going on with officials of Maharashtra and Gujarat for running more special trains to bring back the labourers and workers of UP, he said.

Awasthi, however, reiterated that the condition for bringing migrant workers back is that respective states provide lists with details of stranded workers along with a certificate that the workers boarding the trains have been properly screened and are healthy.

The chief minister, who has asked to stop all kinds of illegal inter-district and inter-state movements, has directed to enlist details of names, addresses, mobile numbers and job skills of workers returning to the state.

Earlier on Friday, about 5,000 labourers from Madhya Pradesh arrived in 155 buses and some 1,341 labourers belonging to MP and living here in quarantine centres were sent back in 50 buses.

The migrant workers stranded in Uttarakhand (1500) and Rajasthan (6500) are also returning to the state.

Adityanath has already written a letter to his counterparts in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan, asking for the details of migrant workers stranded due to the lockdown imposed across the country to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Around four lakh stranded migrant workers have already arrived from Delhi and 12,000 from Haryana.

The chief minister has asked nodal officers to remain available on phone round-the-clock to ensure smooth return of migrant workers to the state.