Bhubaneswar: More than 8 lakh migrants returned from different parts of the country to Odisha by special trains after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
Giving the details on the migrants in reply to a question of Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, Labour Minister Sushant Singh said as many as 277 trains carried the migrants from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu ad Kerala to Odisha. The state government has paid Rs 9 crore to the East Coast Railway (ECoR) towards transportation of 8,53,777 migrants from these states, he added.
But the government does not have data regarding the number of labourers among the migrants, the minister said adding that the information is being collected at block-level.
He further said after the trains and buses stopped running due to countrywide shutdown announced by the Centre from March 24, large number of migrants returned by the special trains. Two migrants died during the journey. The department concerned has been asked to ascertain the compensation amount paid to the families of the deceased, he added.
