Congress rolls out 97 helpline nos. for migrants’ registration, payment of train fares

ASRP Mukesh | TNN | Updated: May 6, 2020, 14:11 IST

RANCHI: A day after its announcement to bear cost of train fares to bring back stranded migrants home, the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee (JPCC) on Tuesday notified 97 helpline numbers, including for districts, for registration of people who want to come back. Of these, five numbers — 9934121751,7004221206, 9431106693, 9431101718, 9431406083 and 7033403031— are allotted for state-level coordination.
The state party unit’s move came on Monday soon after AICC president Sonia Gandhi had announced a similar move nationally, criticising the Union government of charging from the poor migrants and labourers.
JPCC president Rameshwar Oraon, who is also the finance minister in the Hemant Soren-led coalition government, said, “The numbers will be functional from today (Tuesday). We have rolled out a campaign to bring our brothers and sisters stranded outside Jharkhand back to their homes safely. We shall foot the bill, if the government can’t. We have been demanded that the Union government should make the migrants travel for free but to no avail.”
Party spokesperson Alok Dubey said the stranded migrants will be registered through district-specific helpline numbers for smooth coordination. He said, “Even if the calls arrive on state-level numbers, we will channel it to the district concerned for registration so that we can have district wise data to plan their journey back home properly.”
On payment of the fares, he said, “The party will pay directly to the government in lieu of the expenses incurred on ferrying them.”
Another party member, Lal Kishore Nath Shahdeo, said since enforcement of the lockdown, a Covid-19 control centre has been running at the party level for daily monitoring and extending help to the needy across the state. He said, “Through our integrated Covid-19 control centre, we have been coordinating with different district administrations to distribute ration and other benefits to the needy. This apart, our people across the state are also working round-the-clock to ensure that the masses don’t face any problem.”