Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is committed to send migrant labourers, who wish to leave, to their native states through the special Shramik trains in an organised manner, the government said on Friday.
Due to the extended duration of the lockdown, industries, construction work and economy have come to a standstill. Thus migrant workers were being sent from Haryana by special Shramik trains, a government statement said.
Apart from this, the migrants are being sent to nearby states by buses while maintaining social distancing.
Migrant labourers are being brought from the shelter homes to the railway stations by roadways buses. All necessary arrangements have been made before they leave for their home states.
The railway platform is cleaned frequently with a vacuum cleaner and the hands of every migrant worker are sanitized. Also proper arrangements for food and drinking water are made for them.
To ensure that the labourers did not face any problem, volunteers are given the task of guiding them to their respective coaches.
Workers are being sent only after they have registered with the district administration and after their home states have given approval to send them.
Special helpdesks have been set up at the railway stations and officers of the district administration are present while sending the workers through train.
After seeing the warmth of the Haryana government and its officials, the workers felt that the quote "Atithi Devo Bhave" was actually being practised here.
On Wednesday, the first day when the special Shramik train was being sent from Hisar to Katihar in Bihar, the Chief Minister interacted with some of the workers sitting in the train through the mobile phone and asked them to greet the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, on his behalf.
The workers were pleasantly surprised to receive this call from the Chief Minister.
The state government has provided tickets free of cost and made food arrangements for the labourers and their families.
A government spokesperson said 87,072 people, including migrant workers, students, teachers and other persons were sent to their home districts by special Shramik trains, buses and other vehicles till May 13.
In addition, 8,500 people were sent to other states with passes.
The Chief Minister has been monitoring the arrangements made for sending migrant workers to their home states and the arrival of persons coming from other states to Haryana through video conferencing.
( With inputs from IANS )