The government has evacuated 57648 residents of J&K, stranded in various other states and UTs in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, through Lakhanpur besides bringing back home about 12825 people through special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations. As per the detailed break up, 2782 stranded passengers have entered through Lakhanpur from May 17 to May 18 morning while 850 passengers have reached today in the 5th COVID special train at Jammu besides about 519 passengers have reached Udhampur railway station from Tamilnadu. So far, five trains have reached Jammu with a total of 4618 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 8207 passengers have reached Udhampur in 9 special trains, so far.Pertinently, the Jammu and Udhampur district administrations under the supervision of Deputy Commissioners, Sushma Chauhan and Dr. Piyush Singla, have ensured that all requisite arrangements and facilities are in place for an organised and convenient boarding and de-boarding of returnees at the Railway stations and their journey towards their home districts. The administration is ensuring 100 per cent sampling of returnees being done at the kiosks established at the stations. Besides, an elaborate transport system has been put in place to take the passengers to their native districts for administrative quarantine amidst strict adherence to the guidelines issued by MHA and MoFHW regarding COVID-19. Elaborate arrangements have been put in place for reception and departure of these passengers to their homes in different districts of J&K.At Udhampur, the overall process is being monitored by Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce, M K Dwivedi.
As per the official communiqué, of 57648 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur till May 18, 2020 (morning) included 12734 from Punjab; 19308 from Himachal Pardesh, 21 from Andhra Pardesh, 5370 from Delhi, 1205 from Gujrat, 2147 from Rajasthan, 3428 from Haryana, 110 from Chattisgarh, 2955 from Uttarakhand, 462 from Maharashtra, 3719 from Uttar Pradesh, 42 from Odhisa, 100 from Assam and 892 from Madhya Pradesh, 88 from Dehradun, 865 from Chandigarh, 635 from Telengana, 7 from Karnataka, 32 from Chennai, 236 from Bihar, 19 from West Bengal, 26 from Jharkhand and 3247 from other states and UTs.Meanwhile, as per update by the Nodal Officer J&K the government has also arranged COVID special train for the JK residents stranded at Karnataka which will start today, from Madhya Pradesh the train service would start from tomorrow morning while from Telengana, Andhra Pradesh and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh the trains would start from tomorrow evening.Additionally, the train service from Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujrat and Rajsthan is at its advance stage while for North East and states in East the process is on. Also, the train service from J&K to different parts of the country would start from May 19, 2020.The government has appealed to all the people of J&K, stranded outside states and UTs, to keep patience and cooperate with the government for their own safety and welfare as it is the firm commitment of the administration to bring back home all such people in distress.