Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has requested the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for operation of 12 special trains on various routes to bring back people to Uttarakhand from various parts of the nation where they are stranded. He has requested that these special trains be operated on routes from Delhi to Dehradun, Delhi to Haldwani, Chandigarh to Dehradun, Lucknow to Dehradun, Lucknow to Haldwani, Jaipur to Dehradun, Jaipur to Haldwani, Mumbai to Dehradun, Mumbai to Haldwani, Bhopal to Dehradun, Bengaluru to Dehradun and from Ahmedabad to Dehradun. Rawat talked to the Union minister and conveyed this request after chairing a meet regarding the return of stranded people to the state.
Responding to Rawat’s request, the Union Railway Minister said that permission will be granted for the trains sought on the long routes. However, permission will be required from the Ministry of Home Affairs for the trains sought on shorter routes. Rawat said that there are many people from Uttarakhand in Delhi and Chandigarh who want to return back to their home state. The CM said that he will request the Union Minister for Home Affairs, Amit Shah to allow the operation of trains from these stations too.
Earlier, while chairing the meeting with senior officials, Rawat said that establishing coordination with the states concerned, arrangements should be made to systematically bring back people to the state. Full care should be taken to maintain personal distancing, sanitisation and wearing of masks in the process. Those who are to be brought back should be fully screened and the whole task should be conducted as per the Central Govt guidelines. In case of those sent to home quarantine after returning to Uttarakhand, strict observance of the quarantine must be ensured. Gram Pradhans can be given some rights if needed to ensure this, he said.
Secretary Shailesh Bagauli said that so far about 87,000 persons had registered to return to the state. Most of these people belong to the mountainous districts.
Chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, director general of police Anil Kumar Raturi, secretaries Amit Singh Negi, Nitesh Jha and Radhika Jha were also present in the meeting.