APSRTC buses have been kept ready at every check-post to shift migrant workers to the relief centres.
The State has witnessed an influx of 4,661 migrant workers. They have come by trekking long distances from different States in the last three days.
“Migrants were stopped at the check-posts, counselled and shifted to 61 relief centres where food, water and other facilities have been arranged,” said State COVID Task Force Committee Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu, at a press conference here on Sunday.
He said APSRTC buses were kept ready at every check-post to shift these workers to the relief centres.
Of them, 485 workers are from different districts of the State and 4,176 from other States – 1,012 from Uttar Pradesh, 815 from Bihar, 966 from Odisha and around 400-500 from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
He said, following a talk between Chief Secretary Neelam Sawhney and her Odisha counterpart, it was decided to send all migrant workers from Odisha to Ganjam district where its Collector would receive them.
“A request has been made to Telangana and Tamil Nadu governments to help migrant labourers from Andhra Pradesh reach home safely,” Mr. Krishna Babu said, and added that the issue was sensitive and needed a humanitarian approach. Efforts were being made to streamline the system in the next few days. On Saturday night, 902 migrants from Odisha working in Prakasam, Krishna and Srikakulam districts were dropped at Ganjam and, on Sunday morning, another 1,000 of them were shifted to Ganjam by buses.
He said the Chief Minister had given clear instructions not to use force against the migrants and treat them with empathy and compassion.
Special trains
For long distance travel, Shramik Special trains were being arranged to help them reach home.
On Sunday night, five trains – Nellore to Bihar; Anantapur to Uttar Pradesh; Guntur to Uttar Pradesh; Visakhapatnam to Odisha; and Vijayawada to North East – would take migrants to their homes.
The State has also sought permission to run another five trains to Jharkhand, six each to West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, two each to Odisha and Rajasthan, and three to Bihar.
On Monday, five trains – Visakhapatnam to Jharkhand; Anantapur to Bihar; Vijayawada to Madhya Pradesh; Guntur to Rajasthan and Kadapa to Rajasthan – will take another large set of migrants to their respective homes.
The State has so far sent over 36,000 migrant labourers home in 31 trains and has received five trains that brought Telugu workers stranded in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru and Punjab.
