Maharashtra to states: Take your people back home

Pic/AFP

The Maharashtra government has decided to allow migrant workers and other professionals and families to return to their home states, provided they or their respective governments make travel arrangements while the lockdown continues. The state has asked its counterparts to act fast on this.

According to government estimates, Maharashtra has the highest - nearly 6.5 lakh - number of migrant labourers, from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhad, Odisha and other states.

CM Uddhav Thackeray has repeatedly asked the Centre to run special trains for migrants from Mumbai and elsewhere. "Actually, we have started pressurising the states where the migrants are from, to take them home. We will also allow migrants movement if the agencies other than governments make travel arrangements but that would be possible only when the respective states take active part in removing administrative hassles," said a senior bureaucrat who is part of the negotiating team.

Government sources said if migrants start road travel before the lockdown ends - which is unlikely even after May 3 in Mumbai, Pune and other red zones - the railways would have some ease, whenever it starts running trains.

6.5 lakh
The number of migrant labourers in Maharashtra

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