VIJAYAWADA: Principal Secretary (Transport) and Covid-19 nodal officer MT Krishna Babu has assured that shifting of migrant workers to relief centres and then to their home states will be streamlined over the next two-three days. “Already, the inflow of migrants from Tamil Nadu has decreased with the neighbour state swinging into action and taking measures, on the lines of Andhra Pradesh, to transport the migrant workers. However, their inflow from Telangana continues and talks are on with the state officials in this regard,” he said.
Briefing the media after a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy over the arrangements made for the migrants, he said Jagan directed the officials to shift them to relief centres and from there to their respective states, and all expenditure are to be borne by the state. He observed that 4,661 migrant workers walking to their home states have been shifted to 62 relief centres since Thursday.
While 485 of them are from different districts of Andhra Pradesh, the remaining 4,176 are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. “People are being grouped as per their home states at the relief centres. Already, around 2,000 migrants were sent back to their respective states, while the rest will be sent back in Shramik Special trains over the next two days,” he informed.
Ten trains with migrant workers were scheduled to leave from various parts of AP to different northern states on Sunday and Monday. On Sunday night, one train each left from Nellore to Bihar, Anantapur to Uttar Pradesh, Guntur to Uttar Pradesh, Vijayawada to north-eastern states and Visakhapatnam to Odisha. Meanwhile, buses are being arranged for shifting of migrant workers to Ganjam of Odisha. Efforts to shift migrants to Chattisgarh’s Bastar and getting NOCs for operation of more trains to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand are also being made.