NEW DELHI: The Delhi government announced on Friday that it will bear the cost of transport of migrant workers to different parts of the country.Cabinet minister Gopal Rai said, the Arvind Kejriwal government will bear travel expenses of the migrants as their home state had “not responded on who would bear travel cost”.
“As per the current guidelines, the central government and the home state of migrants should bear the cost of their travel. The Delhi government has already reached out to the respective states with lists of migrants stranded in Delhi. Most of these states are yet to respond on who will bear travel costs. Therefore, the Delhi government has taken the decision to bear the expenses to avoid any further inconvenience to the stranded workers,” Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai said.
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The special train departed from the New Delhi railway station for Muzaffarpur at 3 pm, with the city government ensuring social distancing and food and water for all passengers. The Delhi government is working round the clock to ensure safe travel of all the stranded workers, he said.Rai also said that the state government had arranged several buses to ferry these workers to the railway station from shelters across Delhi.
“Teams of doctors were appointed to screen them and after thorough check-ups, medical certificates were issued to them. The Delhi government also ensured today’s lunch along with water bottles for the train journey. All the people were given food packets apart from dry fruits, biscuits, and bananas,” he said.