Tripura: Over 17,000 stranded persons apply for returning home

Agartala: Three days after chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb launched the web portal for registration of Tripura residents stranded in other states and willing to return, over 17,000 have registered their names with the administration.

Taking to the Twitter, chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced this development, “#TripuraCares4all 3 days ago, we launched an online portal to bring back the people of Tripura now stranded in other States due to Lockdown. As of now, as many as 17,000 people of Tripura, now stranded in 11 States, have registered through the online portal for returning home.”

Wherever the total number of stranded people will be in between 1,000 and 1,200, he wrote, the state government shall provide direct train facility. E-passes will be generated on first-come-first-serve basis free of cost. The government of Tripura will bear the expenditure for each train from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Out of the 11 states, in Karnataka, over 5,200 people of Tripura are stranded and the state government is arranging four direct trains to Agartala. Payment for one train has already been made. From Chennai and Kolkata, the state government is arranging three direct trains to Agartala.

“We have also decided to send back 33,000 Migrant workers to their respective states from Tripura. The expenditure will be borne from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund,” Deb wrote.

Earlier on May 4, a letter issued by the general administration (personnel & training) department reads, “Many people of this state like migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other are stranded across different states due to countrywide lockdown declared to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. They may be in great hardship and willing to come back to Tripura.”

Six nodal officers have been engaged with one state each having more number of people from state and one officer for the rest of the states.