West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Tuesday said the government was in touch with the administrations of other states about sending back migrant labourers in a planned and staggered manner, pointing out that infrastructure in South Bengal was devastated by Cyclone Amphan last week.
The Trinamool Congress government has requested the Ministry of Railways not to send more than 15 trains a day. It also wants to quarantine the returnees at home instead of keeping them in institutional quarantine as schools and other buildings in villages are being used as cyclone relief centres.
“On an average, we can accept at least 10 to 15 trains, matching our capacity. Fine-tuning is obviously subject to bilateral discussions with other states. We have started allowing people to enter the state through roadways. People from Nepal and Bhutan are coming everyday from other states. Several lakhs of people have come back to West Bengal. So the pressure should be optimal and well-managed to the extent possible,” Bandyopadhyay told reporters.
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