Raipur: Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has decided that the Congress government in Chhattisgarh will bear the cost of travel of migrant workers returning to the state on Shramik Special trains amid the lockdown for the novel coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Monday.
On the direction of Baghel, state transport secretary Dr Kamalpreet Singh wrote a letter to Divisional Railway Manager Shyam Sundar Gupta informing him about the decision and urged the public transporter to take necessary steps to ensure return of labourers from the state stranded across the country.
Baghel had earlier urged Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to run at least 28 trains for this purpose.
Earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had announced that her party would bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrant workers stranded at their workplaces due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown and seeking to return home.