Ranchi: Since the lockdown began in India to break the Covid-19 chain, migrant workers have been at the receiving end. Hundreds of migrants died while walking or travelling on buses and trains to their homes.
Witnessing the chaos, Jharkhand government led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren who had been alerted by Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) about 150 migrant workers from Jharkhand, being stranded at Ladakh, decided to airlift them. They wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, sharing the same proposal. However, when Jharkhand government did not get any response from the Union Home Ministry, then with the help of Ladakh administration and locals they airlift sixty migrants in private planes on Friday.
CM Soren was present at the Ranchi Airport to receive the returning migrants. In the airport, Soren declared that soon migrants of Jharkhand origin will also be airlifted from Andaman.
Meanwhile, prior to migrant evacuation from Ladakh, 180 Jharkhand migrants had been airlifted from Mumbai. In this process, alumni of National Law School Bangalore played a pivotal role in getting them back by crowdfunding the airfare of migrants.
Jharkhand CM has been at the forefront raising the issue of safe return of migrant workers to the state. Around 3.5-4 lakh of approximate 7.5 lakh registered workers, have returned back to the state. The government has assured that the migrant workers will be brought back by trains, buses and if necessary then by flights.
With successful evacuation, Jharkhand, possibly the first state in the country to fly out migrants from inaccessible place. State has borne all the costs.
“CM is personally perturbed with the deaths of migrant workers in the UP incident and later in sporadic incidents, had thus been exploring all opportunities and support from all quarters to get back other workers from Andaman, NorthEast among others,” said an aide to CM.
He added, “Two flights are being arranged to get back around 320 workers from Andaman very soon.”
Watch the entire process of migrants being airlifted from Leh Airport to Ranchi, via Delhi airport in this eNewsroom‘s video report.
