Students, workers stranded across the country will soon be ferried home by states

States have been asked to make necessary arrangements for migrant workers and students’ return aboard road transport.

File photo | Groups of migrant workers walk towards the Delhi-Ghaziabad border in March 2020 | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: The students, daily-wage earners, factory workers etc stranded across India on account of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown will now be ferried home by their respective states, ThePrint has learnt.

According to a source in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), all the states have been asked to make necessary arrangements for these people’s return aboard road transport. 

There is no plan to start any special trains for the initiative and only road travel has been given a green signal, the source said.

The lockdown, which kicked in 36 days ago and is expected to be in place until Sunday, left hordes of migrant workers and students stranded in different parts of India.

“The decision was taken to ensure that people who have been stuck outside their homes, reach their respective states safely,” the source said.” 

Over the past few days, there have been individual efforts by some states to get them back. 

The Modi government Tuesday reportedly helped arrange over 65 buses to ferry more than 3,800 stranded fishermen from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh. 

The Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh governments also arranged 70 and 300 buses, respectively, to bring back thousands of students stuck in Kota, Rajasthan.

Talking about the initiative, the MHA source said “states should take an estimate of the number of people who are to be ferried and then make arrangements accordingly”. “The states have been asked to coordinate with each other at the earliest,” the source added.

The states, however, have been asked to make arrangements in accordance with the guidelines issued by the central government, the source said.

“This planned movement between states has been allowed, but will only happen in accordance with guidelines and norms laid down by the central government,” the source added.

Travel with all precautions

A second source in the MHA said a separate set of guidelines will also be issued for the movement of people organised by states.

“The buses will be accompanied by officials of the state governments. They will have a sufficient stock of masks and sanitisers, and social distancing will be strictly enforced among passengers,” the source added.

A medical examination of the passengers will be carried out before and after they board the buses, the source said.

“Following this, a 14-day quarantine will also be mandatory for all of them,” the source added.

“We will also be making a detailed list of these passengers with their address, phone numbers, Aadhaar card no., to ensure contact tracing can be done if someone turns out to be Covid-19-positive later,” the source said. “A team will also take an update from all passengers two weeks after they reach their destination.”