In a significant move, the Maharashtra government will foot the train travel tickets of all migrant labourers who will return to their home states, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday.
The bills will be cleared from the CM's Relief Fund and the necessary administrative orders were issued today, and further details will be available later, said an official.
All district collectors have been instructed in the matter since many migrants do not have money to buy tickets to their home states as most have lost jobs during the lockdown.
On May 8, in another humanitarian gesture, Thackeray had announced a compensation of Rs 500,000 to each of the kin of 16 migrant labourers from Madhya Pradesh who were run over by a goods train as they slept on railway tracks, near Aurangabad, shocking the country.
( With inputs from IANS )