First Batch of Stranded Migrant Workers Arrive in Bihar on Special Train

Patna: The much-awaited first special train carrying stranded migrant workers arrived in Bihar on Saturday afternoon, with more such trains likely to reach the state over the next few days. The move has also ended weeks of the state government's dilemma about how to bring back the workers.

The Bihar government has officially said that there are over 28 lakh stranded migrant workers from the state across the country.

More than 1,100 migrant workers arrived at Danapur railway station from Jaipur in a special train. The first batch of returning workers were welcomed by Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey.

Rajesh Kumar, a railway official from the East Central Railway zone said that more special trains are expected to arrive with migrant workers, who have been stranded across the country after the lockdown began on March 25.

According to officials from the state health department, all migrant workers were screened by a medical team as soon as they arrived and they were sent to their respective districts in sanitised buses."Those found to be suspected of carrying the infection will be stopped here and sent to an isolation ward for further tests, to ascertain whether they are infected with the coronavirus or not,” an official said. The workers were given food packets and water bottles before boarding buses for their native villages.

As per official figures, the migrant workers who returned successfully belong to different districts; 137 belonged to Muzaffarpur, there were114 from Purnea, 71 from Sitamarhi, 81 from Samastipur,174 from Rohtas, 73 from Saran, seven from Patna, 15 from East Champaran, and 68 from Begusarai.

On Friday and Saturday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a series of meetings with top officials to work out the modalities of bringing the workers back. "The CM has asked officials to make arrangements for the screening of stranded migrant workers, before and after the journey. He also directed officials to set up quarantine facilities and more isolation beds in hospitals, in view of their likely arrival in the coming days,” said an official at the CM’s office said in Patna.

Three days ago Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi demanded that the Centre runs special trains to bring back the migrant workers, citing a lack of resources with the state government. He also expressed the state government's inability to bring back stranded migrant workers by buses, mentioning that the long journey would neither be safe nor comfortable for them.

Soon after his demand, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced that trains would now ferry stranded migrant workers back home.

Migrant workers from Bihar are stranded in different states due to the sudden lockdown announced on March 24, to prevent the spread of the COVID-19. Additional Chief Secretary Amir Subhani had said most of these migrant workers were stranded in Delhi, Surat, Mumbai, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru, among other places.

According to him, several stranded migrant workers had applied for the Rs 1,000 assistance announced by the state government.

Last Monday, during a video conference, Kumar made it clear to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Bihar government would strictly adhere to the Centre's lockdown guidelines. Hence, it was not possible to bring back stranded migrant workers and students till fresh directives were issued.

According to government data, over 1.8 lakh migrant workers returned to Bihar after the lockdown began. Unofficial figures doing the rounds say more than three lakh migrant workers had already returned to Bihar after March 22.

The state government had identified 3,217 clusters in 160 districts across the country where most of the migrant workers are stranded.

Till Saturday, Bihar had 475 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with four people dead. So far, the state has tested more than 21,000 samples and there are six COVID-19 testing facilities in the state.