Chandigarh, April 27: Even as stranded pilgrims from Nanded, as well as labourers and students from Rajasthan, continued to reach home in Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh led government on Monday contacted the Delhi government to facilitate safe evacuation of 250 Sikh pilgrims stuck at the Sri Majnu Ka Tila gurdwara in the national capital due to the lockdown.
On the Chief Minister’s directives, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Satish Chandra has written to Deputy Commission (Central) New Delhi Nidhi Srivastava, seeking expeditious permission of the Delhi Government to facilitate the safe return of the stranded pilgrims from the Delhi gurdwara, through special Punjab Government buses.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that 152 students, stranded in Kota, were brought back to Punjab in specially hired buses up to Bathinda, from where they had been transported to their respective destinations through State Government Buses.
Apart from these, 2900 labourers belonging to Punjab are returning to the state in 60 Punjab Govt. buses from Jaisalmer, where they were stranded in five relief camps. They are expected to reach Punjab tomorrow morning via the Ganganagar entry point to the state.
Further, as many as 467 pilgrims reached Bathinda this evening in 13 Punjab Government buses from Nanded and were on their way to their respective home towns/cities/villages.
Another lot of buses has started leaving for Nanded to bring back more pilgrims.
Expressing profound grief over the untimely demise, due to heart attack, of PRTC driver under Kilometre Scheme Manjit Singh, who was on the way to Nanded, on April 26, the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced an ex gratia grant of Rs 10 lakh.
