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| Chandigarh |
Updated: May 9, 2020 9:39:35 am
Around 200 workers from Bihar returned to Telangana Friday, on an appeal by the state. (Express Photo)
AS MIGRANT workers head for home across the country, as many as 1.09 lakh from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have applied on a Haryana government web portal to come to the state.
Data shows 79.29% have applied to come to Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panipat, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Yamunanagar and Rewari. Little over 50,000 of them want to come to Gurgaon district. These are districts with maximum industrial activities and business establishments in the state.
Haryana Principal Secretary Anurag Rastogi said, “If migrant workers want to come to Haryana, we will try to make arrangements to bring them back. Industrial activities have already started in the state. ”
Officials believe the state’s low coronavirus numbers are another factor in the workers seeking to return. Till Friday, Haryana had 647 positive cases, including 14 Italian nationals, and eight deaths. Of the 647 cases, 279 have recovered.
Read | On bicycles to Bihar
Haryana CID chief Anil Kumar Rao, who is coordinating with other states on the transportation of migrants, told The Indian Express, “They are people who want to come back to work, apart from those desperate to come to meet to their relatives here.”
A senior IAS officer from Haryana said, “A large number among them might have gone to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh earlier, but others would have gone during the lockdown. Now they are finding it difficult to come back to Haryana because of the restrictions. It’s almost two months and they don’t have any job opportunities there. As business activities at shops and industries have started in Haryana, their owners might be calling them back, which may have prompted them to submit their applications online. ”
Also Read | Alarm over migrant workers as Odisha sees spike; Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh spar on coronavirus cases
The Haryana government launched the web portal six days ago, for those who wanted to leave Haryana for home states as well as those seeking to return. Till May 8, while 1.46 lakh had applied to return to the state, 7.95 lakh wanted to leave.
Three-fourths of those who want to come back (74.5%) are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, while 82.55% of those seeking to leave belong to the two states. Haryana has sought 100 trains to send them, reiterating on Friday that it would not charge the workers any money.
As many as 23,452 migrant workers have already been sent back to their native places, mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
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