Chandigarh: As many as 68,000 migrant workers, who wanted to return to their native states, have been sent back home from Haryana in past four days.
The Haryana government is providing for free transport facility through 5,000 buses and 100 ‘Special Shramik’ trains for them to reach their states in a safe and systematic manner, an official statement said here on Sunday.
The first Shramik Special train from Haryana carrying 1,200 migrant workers, stranded in the state amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, had left for Katihar in Bihar from Hisar railway station on Wednesday.
The statement said after Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s announcement to send every migrant worker, including agricultural labourers who wanted to go back to their home states, about 68,000 of them have been sent back free of cost through various trains and buses.
The statement said more than 1,100 buses carrying migrant workers have been sent to various states till date, including 890 buses to Uttar Pradesh, 152 to Rajasthan, 44 to Madhya Pradesh, nine each to Punjab and Uttarakhand and two to Himachal/
Adequate arrangements are being made by the government to keep these workers in shelter homes and bring them to railway stations and bus stands for their onward journey to their native states.
Among migrants sent back home, 28,000 have been sent to Uttar Pradesh, over 12,000 to Bihar, 9,550 to Uttarakhand and 6,500 to Madhya Pradesh.
The spokesman said 435 labourers have been sent to Rajasthan, 221 to Punjab, 54 to Himachal Pradesh, 46 to Kerala, 32 to Assam, 39 to Maharashtra, 27 to Gujarat, 41 to Jammu and Kashmir, 10 to Delhi and 18 to Andhra Pradesh.
Similarly, about 10,000 Haryana residents who were stranded in various parts of the country, have been brought back to H.