Gandhinagar, Mar 9 (PTI) Over 9 lakh migrant labourers living in Gujarat were sent back to their home states or native places in the state by trains and buses during the coronavirus-induced lockdown imposed in 2020, the state Legislative Assembly was informed on Wednesday.

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Responding to a set of questions by Congress MLAs, state Labour, Skill Development and Employment Minister Brijesh Merja said over 8.24 lakh workers were sent back in 568 trains, while nearly 95,800 were ferried in over 2,500 buses during the lockdown.

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Merja, in his written replies, said the state government had paid the Western Railway Rs 6.86 crore for providing 568 trains to ferry nearly 8.24 migrant labourers to their home towns.

The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC), which had provided buses to transport workers, had received Rs 42.66 lakh from the PM CARES fund, the minister said.

Of the 568 trains that left Gujarat, 448 had originated from Surat city alone with over 6.53 lakh migrants, followed by Ahmedabad with 185 trains and 2.69 lakh workers, he said.

As many as 68 trains with 1.02 lakh labourers had departed from Rajkot and 41 trains with 56,000 workers had originated from Vadodara city, the data shared by Merja stated.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)