Chief Minister Hemant Soren today said that the State Government is committed to bring back the people of Jharkhand stranded in other States. The Government is making all endeavours to bring back the 6.85 lakh stranded Jharkhand residents in systematic manner by coordinating with the railways and the Central government as soon as possible. The CM has also requested the opposition leaders to urge the Central government and make correspondence so that more and more trains are earmarked for operations in Jharkhand. The state government is bearing the fares of all the labourers and will continue to do so, he affirmed.
The CM also met Governor Droupadi Murmu at Raj Bhawan on Thursday and apprised her of the efforts being made by the State Government while discussing various challenges in the situation arising due to Novel Corona Virus (Covid-19) in the State. He also discussed the problem of migrant labourers and said that the government is making efforts to bring them home State as per their wish. He said that to prevent the spread of Covid-19 there are various challenges, everyone is being called upon and made aware to follow the lockdown. He said that the government is working with commitment in this direction so that no one is hungry.
Meanwhile, the Chief Nodal Officer of Corona related matters of Jharkhand, Amarendra Pratap Singh said that the government is coordinating with other states and Central government and getting the return of migrant labourers through train. At the same time, the work of bringing back the migrant labourers by bus is being done by the Deputy Commissioner of all the districts. So far, more than 60,000 people have returned to the State. In all these works, all the protocols issued by the Government of India are being followed.
Transport Secretary K Ravi Kumar said that about 30,000 people have returned to the State through bus. At the same time, 44 trains have come to Jharkhand from different states and 56 trains are scheduled to reach here. So far, 50,028 migrant labourers have returned to the State through the Shramik Express special train. Passes are also being issued for movement by private vehicles in the state. Till date, a total of 1,04,403 applications were received out of which 95 per cent applications have been considered and action taken.
Disaster Management Department Secretary Amitabh Kaushal said that people are coming back from many states after the directives issued by the Central Government. In this context, a large number of migrant labourers are coming back to their homes, all have to work at the grass root level. People have to be aware that they themselves follow the guidelines issued by the government to protect themselves from corona. For this, work is being done to provide information to the village head, chieftain, Anganwadi worker, Sahia, Chowkidar, school committee, teacher etc from house to house and motivate them on how to live in order to prevent the coronavirus.
He said that the guideline of Containment Zone has been released. Barricading is also being done here as per the requirement. He said that all the houses in the containment zone will remain in quarantine. Control room is also being operated for Containment Zone.
An additional amount of Rs 16 crore 70 lakh has been disbursed to various districts of Jharkhand to help the trapped laborers due to lock-down. With which he will spend keeping the trapped laborers in the quarantine center in Jharkhand. People living in the quarantine center are being given a special packet consisting of 10 kg rice, 1 kg arhar dal, 1 kg chana dal, 1 packet oil and 1 kg salt.