Thousands of migrants unsure of leaving Doon as work resumes

A large number of migrants have refused to return to their native States as various works have resumed in the district.

The Dehradun chief development officer (CDO) Nitika Khandelwal who is currently supervising the operation of sending thousands of migrants home in different states through trains said this while talking to The Pioneer.

At present, sending the migrants home amid the lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 is one of the major challenges for the administration.

 The news of several migrants in some states leaving on foot for their home states is not unheard of in the current scenario. However, such cases are presently negligible in Dehradun.

 As stated by Khandelwal, this is because state administration commenced the operation of trains and buses on time to send migrants back to their native states.

Due to this, nobody was compelled to choose any other way. According to her, the first train departed from Dehradun on May 19 and till now about 6,737 migrants have been sent to their respective states by trains that include some students from Manipur too.

Explaining about the procedure before the migrants board the train, Khandelwal said that before boarding the train, migrants go through thermal screening and a list including their names and destination is prepared.

All this data is then sent to the railway station, stated Khandelwal. She further informed that the migrants are also provided food packets and dry snacks for their journey by the district administration.

 On the question of how many more migrants will be sent to their respective States in coming days, Khandelwal said that the administration asked for trains based on the data of migrants who wanted to return to their homes but many of them backed out.

She added that there are about 4,000 migrants in the districts who refused to go back stating that work has now resumed here. Since most of these migrants do not want to go back yet, nothing is confirmed about their status of staying here or leaving for their native states yet, informed Khandelwal.