Uttarakhand govt gears up to bring back stranded people

The Uttarakhand government on Thursday said it is preparing an action plan to bring back its citizens stranded in other parts of the state due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Everything will soon be in place and the process of bringing people back and sending those stuck in the state to their respective destinations will begin in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure suggested by the Centre, Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh told PTI.

The Union Home Ministry, in an order issued on Wednesday, allowed migrant workers, tourists, students and other people, who are stranded in different parts of the country, to move to their respective destinations with certain conditions.

The order stated that buses shall be used for transport of such groups of stranded people and these vehicles will be sanitised and will have to follow safe social distancing norms in seating.

"The Centre's guidelines in this regard have been received. Accordingly, details of a Standard Operating Procedure to be followed while transporting people are being worked out," Singh said.

Officials are in touch with authorities in other states to determine the number of people from Uttarakhand stranded outside, the chief secretary said.

A simultaneous exercise is also underway to ascertain the number of people from other states stuck in Uttarakhand, he said.

"To get a number is necessary to assess our requirements and prepare ourselves accordingly, he said. Once an SOP is in place and we know the number of the stranded population, we can set our priorities and begin transporting them," he said, adding, that it should not take long.

The state government has been under tremendous pressure from the opposition as well as its own MLAs and ministers to urgently bring back people of the state stranded in other parts of the country.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker Premchand Aggarwal met Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Wednesday and requested him to address the issue.

Uttarakhand Congress president Pritam Singh has welcomed the Centre's decision to ease the curbs on transporting stranded people and asked the state government to act fast.