Bhubaneswar: The state government has claimed that it has successfully sent close to 26,000 migrants from other states stuck in Odisha due to the lockdown.
The I&PR department Thursday said that a total of 26,621 stranded migrants of other states have been sent to their states through different modes of transport. It also said that the transport mediums were also properly sanitised before the departure.
The beneficiaries are said to be mostly from West Bengal (6,250), Chhattisgarh (3,550), Bihar (3,600), Jharkhand (7,100), Rajasthan (1,000), Uttar Pradesh (1,800), Madhya Pradesh (915), Andhra Pradesh (960), Telangana (550), Maharashtra (350) and Manipur (38),” the department said.
“The buses were sanitised before boarding. Guest workers were explained about the need of social distancing and use of masks. Water bottles, masks, dry food/food packets had been distributed,” it added.
Most of the migrants were from Sundargarh district which numbered at 6,620. “Sundargarh tops the list in sending guest workers, followed by Khurdha (4,400), Bolangir (1,120), Bhadrak (750), Kalahandi (1,110), Malkangiri (760), Angul (880), Rayagada (1,300) and Bargarh (800),” the department said.
The government meanwhile said that a total of 2.14 lakh Odias living in different parts of the country have now returned to their home states.