Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has till date contacted around 5 lakh persons from the northern state, mostly migrant workers, left stranded in other states across the country amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus scare.
The Nodal Officers appointed by the Uttar Pradesh government for different states on the orders of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have come in contact with these stranded persons and thereafter helped resolve their problems, mostly pertaining to food and shelter.
While the Centre has hailed such endeavour, other states are also following this method of contacting their respective migrant population stuck in other states.
The Uttar Pradesh government had appointed 16 IAS officers and 16 IPS officers in the ranks of ADGP and IGP to act as Nodal Officers. These officers are running call centres from their respective offices to contact their counterparts in other states and help resolve the problems of migrants and others.
Sources said that around 1,200 calls were received daily at the call centres set up at the Nodel Offices for different states and over 43,000 calls have been received till April 21 evening.
Each call is related to problems faced by 60 to 70 migrants.
The Chief Minister takes stock of the working of these Nodal Officers on a daily basis.
Shakeel Ahmed, a native of Rampur, said he was stranded in Chennai in Tamil Nadu when the lockdown was first announced on March 24 night. He said when he contacted the Nodal Officer, his problems regarding food were immediately taken care of.
Krishna Saini of Deoria said he was stranded in Thane in Maharashtra. He contacted the Nodal Officer concerned after he faced problems related to food and shelter. The officer advised him to stay put but ensured he was supplied food at his shelter.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary RK Tiwari said most of the stranded migrants were faced with the problems of food, shelter and transport to return home. He said lists of all UP migrants and others left stranded had been shared with Chief Secretaries of other states through letters.
He said contact was maintained through phone calls too and all possible help ensured to those stuck in other states.
Nodal Officer Nitin Ramesh Gokarn said that hundreds of migrants stuck in Mumbai, Pune and Thane in Maharashtra had been helped through government machinery and voluntary organisations.
