Centre allows return of migrant workers, tourists, students to their home states with conditions

The MHA revised advisory has asked states and Union Territory authorities to allow stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, and students to move with conditions during the lockdown.

New Delhi: Union Ministry of Home on Wednesday (April 29) issued guidelines for the movement of persons due to lockdown in the wake of coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. The revised advisory has asked states and Union Territory authorities to allow stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists and students to move with conditions during the lockdown. 

The MHA, however, stated that all states should designate nodal authorities and develop standard protocols for receiving and sending such stranded persons. The nodal authorities shall register stranded persons within their states or union territories, it said. 

It said that the movement of persons should be allowed under the following norms: 

1. All states/ UTs should designate nodal authorities and develop standard protocols for receiving and sending such stranded persons. The nodal authorities shall also register the stranded persons within their states/ UTs. 

2. In case a group of stranded persons wish to move between one state/ UT and another state/ UT, the sending and receiving states may consult each other and mutually agree to the movement by road. 

3. The moving person(s) would be screened and those found asymptomatic would be allowed to proceed. 

4. Buses shall be used for transport of groups of persons. The buses will be sanitized and shall follow safe social distancing norms in seating. 

5. The states/ UTs falling on the transit route will allow the passage of such persons to the receiving State/ UT. 

6. On arrival at their destination, such person(s) would be assessed by the local health authorities, and kept in home quarantine, unless the assessment requires keeping the person(s) in institutional quarantine. They would be kept under watch with periodic health check-ups. 

For this purpose, such persons may be encouraged to use Aarogya Setu App through which their health status can be monitored and tracked.

Notably, at least 70 buses of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation left today to bring back hundreds of students stranded in Rajasthan’s Kota due to coronavirus-enforced lockdown. The fleet of 70 buses left from Maharashtra's Dhule district around 10.30 AM and will reach Rajasthan by Wednesday night. 

Earlier, the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh also facilitated the return of their stranded students from Kota as the country is pasiing through a nation-wide lockdown since March 25 which was later extended to May 3 to contain the spread of coronavirus.