Another batch of 180 migrants to be flown back from Port Blair today

Ranchi: Another contingent of 180 migrant workers of Jharkhand, who are stranded in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, will be evacuated by air on Thursday afternoon.
A chartered flight, hired by the state government with financial support from a New Delhi-based company, Interlink Foods Private Limited, will take off from Port Blair’s Veer Savarkar International Airport at 3:30 pm. The aircraft will reach Ranchi’s Birsa Munda International airport around 6:30 pm.
This will be the fourth batch of Jharkhand’s migrant workers who will reach Ranchi by air. On May 27, the alumni network of National Law School in Bengaluru sent 174 persons from Mumbai to Ranchi in a chartered commercial airliner. On May 29, 60 migrants were evacuated from Batalik sector in Leh and brought to Ranchi by two commercial airliners at the behest of the state government. On May 30, 180 migrants were flown back from Port Blair by the state government in a chartered Indigo flight.
Announcing the evacuation, a statement from the office of chief minister Hemant Soren said, “Private companies are also participating in the CM’s mission to bring back Jharkhand’s migrant workers. The CM had urged the companies and industrialists to extend their help. Inspired by the CM’s efforts, a Delhi-based company, Interlink Foods Private Limited, has extended its help. With mutual consent of Jharkhand and Andaman & Nicobar and the company’s cooperation, the migrants will be brought back on June 4.”
Sources in the CMO said a few more flights are being planned to evacuate stranded workers in Jammu & Kashmir. “After the CM’s public appeal, many corporate houses and trade and commerce bodies have called to seek for ways in which they can contribute to the return of migrants,” a government official said.
As per data available with the state transport department, as many as 219 Shramik special trains have brought back 2.89 lakh migrants to Jharkhand since May 1. There are five more trains scheduled, including one each from Mizoram, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Besides the scheduled trains, Jharkhand government has written to the Indian Railways for operating 10 more special trains to bring back the remaining workers. Around 4.3 lakh people have been brought back in trains and buses so far, the department said.