Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his personal intervention to arrange special trains

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his personal intervention to arrange special trains for the next 10-15 days, beginning May 5, for transporting migrant labourers stranded in Punjab to their homes in other states.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain AmarinderThe Chief Minister has urged the Home Minister to direct the Ministry of Railways to make suitable arrangements, since the migrant labourers stranded in Punjab were “understandably restless to return to their native places.”

The Chief Minister’s request came as the more than 6.44 lakh migrant workers interested in returning to their home states had successfully registered on the state government’s specially created portal -  www.covidhelp.punjab.gov.in.

In his letter to Shah, the Chief Minister said that his government would indicate its daily requirement of trains in advance to the Ministry of Railways for the next 10-15 days to transport all the people who had registered on the portal.

At the local level, Captain Amarinder said Punjab officers were coordinating with the senior Railways officers and the officers of recipient states to plan the smooth movement of the migrants.

The Chief Minister pointed out that a large number of labourers come seasonally from UP, Bihar and other eastern States to seek temporary employment in both industrial and agricultural sector in Punjab. These people, who were due to leave in March, normally after Holi, could not leave due to the imposition of lockdown this year, he pointed out.

hough the State Government had made all possible arrangements to provide them food and shelter in the past six weeks, they were now naturally keen to get back home, said Captain Amarinder, urging the Home Minister to immediately intervene in view of the “special exigency.”