india

Updated: Apr 26, 2020 08:03 IST

Thousands of migrant labourers from Madhya Pradesh have returned home from Gujarat, more than a month after the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic was imposed, news agency ANI reported.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan had said on Friday the state government will bring back migrant workers stranded in other parts of the country.

ANI quoted the chief minister as saying on Saturday that at least 2400 migrant labourers reached Madhya Pradesh in 98 buses and were screened for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

They reached the central state’s Jhabua district from Gujarat.

“We are bringing back migrant labourers from Rajasthan and this will continue…” Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.

Also read: Post-lockdown plan, migrants in focus at Centre-states meet

The chief minister said the state government is also making efforts to send labourers stranded in other districts of the state to their home districts.

“We have arranged vehicles for them. They are being screened before leaving for their homes,” he added.

This also comes after Chouhan’s counterpart in Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath announced that his government will bring back labourers and workers who have been stranded in other states and have completed 14 days of quarantine in a phased manner.

On Saturday, Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba met chief secretaries of the states to talk about the thousands of workers, currently in migrant labour camps around India who want to return home, among other things.

With no interstate travel being allowed and passenger trains not running, several states have suggested running special trains to transport these workers.

At Saturday’s meeting, some states including Punjab, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal asked the Centre to set a protocol for such movements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed the country under a three-week lockdown from March 25 to April 14 to prevent the spread of coronavirus. As the number of coronavirus disease cases continued to increase, the lockdown was extended till May 3.

The lockdown brought the entire country to a standstill but hit thousands of daily-wage migrant workers in big cities the most, who were seen walking back to their homes.

The Centre directed the state governments to ensure strict enforcement of the lockdown, and provide food and shelter to those distressed to avoid a nationwide exodus of labourers.

Last week, the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) allowed stranded migrant labourers across India to return to their places of work within the city which are non-containment zones.

“In the event, that a group of migrants wish to return to their places of work, within the state where they are presently located, they would be screened and those who are asymptomatic would be transported to their respective places of work,” MHA said in a statement.

The ministry, however, said labourer cannot move outside any state or Union territory they are in.