Kerala ready to welcome back migrant labourers: Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram, May 2 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, here on Saturday, said he received a call from his Odia counterpart Naveen Patnaik and discussed migrant labourers."He called to thank Kerala for making arrangements for sending Odias, working here, in a special train on Friday. I told him Kerala would welcome back those who had left and they needn't have any doubts about it," said Vijayan after the daily Covid-19 review meeting.Stating that more trains will leave Kerala carrying migrants, he said, "Those states will have to make arrangements to receive and isolate them. Once those arrangements are made, trains will carry them back."During the evening, second train left Thiruvananthapuram for Jharkhand with 1,125 passengers. "All norms, including social distancing, were taken care of," said City Police Commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyaya.Each passenger had to pay the base fare, and they were given food packets and health certificate, he added.Non-stop trains to Dhanbad, Bhubaneswar and Patna are also lined up for the day from Ernakulam, Tirur, Aluva and Kozhikode.
--IANS sg/pcj