Jalandhar, May 6 (Wishavwarta)- Owing to the strenuous efforts of the state government led by the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh the fifth ‘Shramik Express’ train with 1200 migrants onboard chugged off from Jalandhar city station to Ayodhya.
The Punjab government was bearing the entire expenses of the train which was around Rs 5.76 lakh. The state government has so far spent Rs. 30.94 lakh on running of these five trains from the city which include Rs 7.12 lakh for free travel of all migrants in train to Daltongunj (Jharkhand), Rs 6.59 lakh for Gazipur and Banaras (Uttar Pradesh), Rs 5.22 lakh for Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Rs 6.24 lakh for Gorakhpur and Rs. 5.76 lakh for Ayodhya both in Uttar Pradesh. Apart from it state government was also providing refreshment for the migrants who were moving to their native state in the trains.
Pertinently, the Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government has sanctioned Rs 35 crore, in the first phase, towards its share of the migrants’ cost of transportation by the Indian Railways. The Jalandhar administration has received the amount from the state government which was being paid to the Railways directly for providing tickets to the registered passengers thereby enabling them to go to their native states free of cost.
Likewise, a team of the Health department was screening every migrant who was coming to the station for boarding the train. The district administration had made adequate arrangements for maintaining social distancing amongst the passengers before boarding the train.