Jharkhand govt to airlift 60 migrant workers from Leh today

The Jharkhand government will airlift 60 stranded migrant workers from Batalik in Leh on Friday, officials from the Chief Minister's office said. These migrant labourers were working on a Border Road Organisation (BRO) project in the area.

According to the officials, the workers will be airlifted by a SpiceJet flight departing at noon today from Leh.

The migrant workers will arrive in Delhi at around 2 pm and will be flown out by an Indigo flight departing Delhi at 6 pm and reaching Ranchi 8 pm, the officials said. Upon arrival in Ranchi, the workers are most likely to be received by Chief Minister Hemant Soren at the airport.

Concerned officials of Ladakh administration and the BRO are actively supporting the effort and all 60 migrant workers have been checked, thermal screened and transported by BRO to Leh and are in a transit camp.

The Jharkhand Chief Secretary had, on May 12, written a letter to the Union Home Secretary seeking permission to allow the State government to airlift stranded workers of Jharkhand from Andamans, Ladakh and the North-eastern states at its own expense.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren had also personally written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the issue. However, officials said that no response was received from the Central government.

Soren has said that two flights are being operationalised to get back around 320 workers from Andamans soon as well.

Migrant workers had May 10 reached out to the Chief Minister on Twitter seeking assistance for their return, following which Soren had urged Ladakh administration to provide assistance.

After the resumption of commercial air operations, Soren on May 26 personally entrusted a small team to work out all operational possibilities to ensure the safe return of 60 migrants from Dumka district stuck in Gorgodoh Village, Batalik in Kargil district, Leh.

Officials said that around 3.5 to 4 lakh of the approximate 7.5 lakh registered migrant workers have already returned to the state and further efforts are being made to ensure that no one is left behind.

-ANI

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