Delhi govt asks officials to coordinate with Railways to send migrants home quickly

The Delhi government has ordered officials to ensure migrants do not walk on roads and railway tracks and if found, they are taken to the nearest shelter facilities, provided food and water till the time their travel home in special trains and buses is arranged.

It has also asked its officials to coordinate with the Railways to speed up their movement to their homes.

Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev asked nodal officer PK Gupta and other senior officers on Friday to ensure "migrant workers do not resort to walking on road and on railway tracks."

Dev also asked them to take the migrants found walking on roads or railway tracks to shelter facilities, provide food and water till the time they are sent home in special trains and buses.

 

"There should be proper cooperation with the Railways in running more number of Shramik Special trains so that travel of stranded migrant workers is facilitated at a faster rate," he said in an order issued on Friday.

All Shramik trains should be received without any hinderance, the order added.

Earlier Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called for urgent steps to mitigate the hardships faced by migrants during lockdown, saying he was deeply disturbed by the deaths of labourers in an accident in UP's Auraiya district.

His deputy Manish Sisodia said courage should be shown in reopening the cities that were turning into "graves" of hardworking labourers.

At least 24 migrant labourers lost their lives and 36 people suffered injuries when a trailer-truck carrying them collided with another truck early Saturday in Auraiya, police said.

"Extremely disturbed by the loss of lives in the accident in Auraiya. The tragedy of migrant labour keeps getting worse. Something needs to be done urgently," Kejriwal said in a tweet.

A large number of migrant workers from major urban industrial centres have been moving with their families to their home states, often walking and in cramped vehicles, due to loss of employment during the nearly two-month-long nationwide lockdown.