Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressing willingness to bring back the distressed migrant workers of his State from Leh and northeastern States on chartered flights with “dignity” .
“So far we have been able to get back 1.5 lakh stranded workers, students and other persons by trains and buses and while executing this evacuation exercise, we came to know that nearly 200 labourers of Jharkhand are stuck in difficult terrain of Ladakh. Similarly, around 450 such workers are stranded in the North-Eastern states. Distress calls from there are being received everyday in my office ... due to the difficult terrain of these places, a viable solution would be to lift them by air,” said Mr. Soren in his one –page letter dated May 20.
“But, this is not possible in the present circumstances because plying of services and chartered flights has been prohibited by the lockdown orders issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs”, he added further in the letter.
“In view of the circumstances explained above, I would urge you to give us permission to run chartered flights to Leh and North-Eastern states so that the distressed workers of our State can be brought back to their motherland with dignity”,” Mr Soren said in his letter while, reminding Mr. Shah about another letter sent to him on May 12.
“Earlier on 12 May, a similar request was sent to MHA for permission to run a chartered flight to Andaman & Nicobar Islands. But we are yet to hear on this. This permission may also be expedited”, he wrote in the letter.
Recently, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said that States like Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan were not allowing the free movement of the trains that the Centre was trying to run to get stranded people back to their home States.
Later, Mr. Soren in a series of tweets responded to Mr. Goyal saying that his State had given no-objection certificates (NOCs) to 110 trains. He also shared a letter written by the Jharkhand Chief Secretary to the Union Home Secretary requesting permission to operate a chartered plane to Andaman and Nicobar islands to bring back over 300 workers of the State.
Nearly 4 lakh migrant workers from Jharkhand are stuck in different parts of the country after the lockdown was imposeed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Many of them have returned home but lakhs of migrants still remain stranded and are exploring ways to reach their home.
“I’ve asked my officials not to allow any of them walking on the road in my State … provide all required facilities to them to reach their home comfortably whether in Jharkhand or to other States”, Mr. Soren said two days back.