West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Chief Ministers of 18 States on Thursday urging them to provide food, shelter and medical facilities to all semi-skilled and unskilled workers from the State who have been stranded due to the lockdown.
“Due to complete lockdown in the country due to COVID-19 pandemic, many Bengal workers could not travel back and are struck at different places,” the letter said. These migrant workers, it said, are in groups of 50 to 100 and can easily be identified by the administration.
“I take the opportunity to request you to kindly ask your administration to provide them with basic shelter, food and medical support during this period of crisis,” the letter said. The State administration was getting SOS calls from these group of workers. Ms. Banerjee said said West Bengal Chief Secretary would pass on details to the chief secretaries of the States concerned to hasten the process of humanitarian support.
The letter was addressed to Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab and eight other States. The issue of reaching out to migrant workers of the State stuck in various States was raised during the all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister On March 23.
