As COVID-19 has crippled the world’s movement since months, lakhs of migrant labourers have found themselves stuck in several parts of the country. With no one focusing on them in the beginning, thousands of them walked miles to reach their village which also resulted in law & order situation across India. From plying buses in the early stages to initiating the demand of trains across the country, the Ashok Gehlot led Rajasthan Government has left no stone unturned to ease the transportation process of these migrant labourers. As soon as the nod of railway transportation was received, Rajasthan Government began evacuating labourers as well as students stuck in Kota, also known as the education hub of India.The panel under the leadership of Subodh Agrawal, Additional Chief Secretary is keeping a tab on the movements and is constantly in touch with other states to ensure the ease of travel for stranded labourers. “We are in touch with states for the to & fro of our labourers. This is the time we make sure that every citizen is fed, and reaches home without any trouble. We are monitoring the movements and every day, several rescue trains deployed are transferring labourers. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is keeping a check personally and has strictly directed that koi bhuka nahi soyega (no one should sleep hungry),” said Subodh Agrawal, ACS.Till now, nearly 96,000 migrant labourers have been transported to several home states and daily trains are deployed for travel. The transportation of labourers is being taken care by Ashok Gehlot led Rajasthan Government along with the facilities of meals, masks, sanitizers. The travel is being done under strict vigil and keeping social distancing in mind and all the passengers are being checked by medical teams on particular railway stations.
The state-wise transfer of labourers is as follows:
Sent to Gujarat: 4,292 Came from Gujarat: 2,12,006
Sent to MP: 37,442 Came from MP: 17,233
Sent to Punjab: 7,774 Came from Punjab: 1,128
Sent to Haryana: 5,580 Came from Haryana 3,713
Sent to UP: 27,469 Came from UP: 5,614
Sent to Uttarakhand: 1,589 Came from Uttarakhand: 1,132
Sent to WB: 677 Came from WB: 863
Sent to Bihar: 5,942 Came from Bihar: 398
Sent to Maharashtra: 554 Came from Maharashtra: 36,814
Sent to Odisha: 79 Came from Odisha: 272
Notably, 8,12,423 labourers registered to travel from trains and reach their home states as soon as the government got the nod of transportation. On the other hand, 10,64,417 labourers registered to reach Rajasthan from across India. “In the coming days, lakhs of labourers will be sent to home states and will be brought back to Rajasthan. We hope that things go hassle-free and as we planned. After a very unfortunate incident in Aurangabad, we have taken strict measures to ensure the safety of these stranded labourers,” added Subodh Agrawal, Additional Chief Secretary and head of the committee looking after transportation of labourers and students. The Government of Rajasthan has started registration of stranded people to be migrated (Inward/Outward) to and from Rajasthan via several processes. The registration is taking place through eMitra where such people have submitted their migration requests. Any stranded citizen can register on eMitra portal by providing all the relevant details along with documents or can also register using +181/18001806127. The next step in the process would be e-Pass/e-NOC recommendation by the DM. As soon as the request has been submitted, it shows to District Magistrate systemically on RajSSO-he-Mitra portal to initiate the process for issuance of e-NOC(Inward)/e-Pass (Outward) to migrants.