After Gujarat and Maharashtra, Naveen Patnaik discusses return plan of stranded Odias with Tamil Nadu CM
BHUBANESWAR: After taking up the issue regarding smooth return of stranded Odias with the his counterparts in Gujarat and Maharashtra, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday reached out to Tamil Nadu CM EK Palaniswami over the issue.
During a videoconferencing with Palaniswami, Naveen sought cooperation of the Tamil Nadu government for smooth and dignified return of the stranded Odia people including migrant workers, students, professionals, stranded pilgrims and others. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan also joined the videoconferencing from New Delhi.
“Whoever is willing to come to Odisha, we will coordinate their movement. Whoever wants to stay and continue their work, they may also be facilitated,” said Naveen during the VC.
Based on the feedback of some of the stranded Odias, with whom Naveen also spoke through the videoconferencing, Naveen thanked Palaniswami for taking good care of the distressed Odias during the lockdown and personally visiting some camps.
Senior bureaucrat and Tamil Nadu-native R Balakrishnan, who is currently serving as chief advisor to the chief minister will coordinate safe return of Odia people from the southern state.
During the VC, Naveen also requested Dharmendra to coordinate with the Union government for safe return of Odia people from different other states.
“At this difficult juncture, we all are working together to facilitate well being of the Odia and Tamil people in their respective states,” said Dharmendra during the VC.
Official sources, Chennai and it’s suburbs and other districts like Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts of the southern state are home to around 2.5 lakh Odias while around 1.30 lakh are engaged as migrant workers.
Apart from the migrant workers, who are engaged in brick kilns, construction firms, timber factories and other manufacturing units in the state, there are also thousands of Odias working as white-collar professionals in various companies there.
“The Tamil Nadu chief minister has assured all cooperation for smooth return of the Odia people. The return process will be facilitated by various district administrations in coordination with the local administration in Tamil Nadu,” said a senior government official, who attended the VC.
Earlier, Naveen held discussions with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday on smooth and dignified return of the Odia people. A group of Odia people from Ganjam, who are stuck in Surat, have already reached their native place and put in state-facilitated quarantine while another group of Odias are on their ways. Around 1.5 lakh Odias are expected to return from Gujarat and Maharashtra.
As the Centre has allowed movement of migrants and other stranded people, Naveen is likely to discuss with several other CMs in the next a few days to facilitate smooth return.
The state machinery has also geared up as around 8 lakh people may return to the state in the next 15-20 days form different states.
Odisha has made it mandatory for registration and 14-days quarantine of people returning from outside the state. Though officials ar tight lipped about the number of people, who have registered with the state government’s portal to travel back to Odisha, unofficial sources said the number could be around 8 lakh.
As smooth return of the migrants remains a big challenge for the state government, it has roped in 22 senior IAS officers as observers for various districts to oversee the process as top priority.
The officers have been asked to ensure hygiene, sanitation and social distancing with necessary discipline and security arrangement impeding any infiltration into villages at the quarantine facilities, set up at the panchayat and ward level to accommodate the lakhs of stranded people, who would visit Odisha in the next a few days.
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