UP CM to officials: Ensure nobody walks back home

LUCKNOW: Directing officials to ensure that nobody walks back home, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said that the government was making all efforts in deploying buses and trains to bring back stranded migrant workers.
From Friday onwards, the government is expecting about 30,000 people to arrive in UP. Additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi said the number could be scaled up to as much as 45,000. "The CM has said that a minimum of 30,000 people by train and another 10,000-15,000 by bus should be brought back to the state each day. We have requested Maharashtra to send at least 10 trains each day. We have also spoke to Punjab and 17 trains from there have either started for UP or will be starting," he said.
On May 9, the first direct flight from Sharjah is also expected to land in Lucknow around 8 pm, carrying about 200 passengers. The state government has prepared the Varanasi and Lucknow airports to receive international passengers with the ministry of external affairs starting flights to bring back those stranded abroad. Awasthi said that they would be tested on arrival and quarantined for 14 days before being sent home, at their own expense. "People from UP who arrive in other cities from abroad are likely to be sent here via domestic flights," an official said.
There are 35 stations operational in UP currently where about 56 trains had arrived till Thursday night carrying about 67,000 people. Trains had halted at Agra, Lucknow, Jaunpur, Bareily, Prayagraj, Kannauj, Banda, Azamgarh, Barabanki, Sitapur and Unnao. Permission has been given to about 33 more trains which are expected to bring back another 55,000 people."Since the lockdown was imposed, we have brought back 32,599 people from Gujarat, about 7,000 from Maharashtra, 4,700 from Punjab, 2,400 from Telangana and about 1,200 from Karnataka. The first train from Kerala also arrived in UP on Thursday, taking the total trains which have operated or have been given permission to operate to 99.
Around 10,000 state roadways buses have also been in operation. On Thursday the state government carried out an exchange with Rajasthan, sending back over 9,000 people who hail from there and receiving a similar number of people who were stuck in Rajasthan. In the first phase of transfers, UP has brought back 55,700 people by bus, including more than 11,000 from Haryana, about 6,000 from Madhya Pradesh, 10,000 from Rajasthan including students from Kota and another 1,500 from Uttaranchal.
The CM has said that the returning workers should be linked to organisations and schemes to help them get jobs. He said that a scheme should be prepared to find them work under MNREGA, MSME, one district-one product, dairies, milk committees etc.