BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Monday said the Centre should consider making arrangements for running special trains to evacuate migrant workers from Odisha stranded in different parts of the country.
Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera said Odisha has 15,000 buses which can ferry migrants from the neighbouring States but not from far away States like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. However, no formal decision has been taken to transport migrants by special trains. “No discussion has been held with the Centre in this regard so far,” he said.
The Minister said Odisha Government will requisition all the buses and if necessary arrangements of buses from the neighbouring states can also be made to bring back the stranded people. However, it will be a very difficult task to bring all the people in buses, he said. Odisha Government has made registration mandatory for all those keen on returning to Odisha, and launched a portal for this purpose. Besides, nodal officers have been appointed in all the 6,798 gram panchayats and BDOs have been trained to facilitate registration procedure of stranded people, which includes workers, students, patients and pilgrims.
People who return to Odisha will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine at the panchayat level.The Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department has made functional 7,102 temporary medical camps/centres with 2.27 lakh beds, where the returnees can be placed under quarantine.