Chief minister Hemant Soren's official send-off to migrant workers for a Border Road Organization (BRO) project, in a train scheduled to leave Dumka railway station on Friday afternoon, got cancelled due to bad weather, officials in his office said.

However, a train will leave Dumka with workers for a BRO project on Saturday, a close aide of Hemant said. “The CM could not leave for Dumka due to bad weather. A train will, however, leave Dumka tomorrow with workers inducted by the BRO,” he said.

Dumka is nearly 300 kilometres from Ranchi, and the CM was scheduled to cover the distance in his chopper, sources said. Due to overcast conditions and rains in Ranchi the chopper could not fly, they added.

Additional director general of BRO Anil Kumar met Hemant at the Jharkhand Ministry on Thursday and assured him about taking necessary steps in connection with the government's pre-conditions for sending workers to the frontiers for road construction work. Following the meeting, the CMO announced that Hemant would flag off around 1500 workers from Dumka for a BRO project.

The Jharkhand government has also asked the BRO to subsequently sign an MoU with the state after a go-ahead from the ministry of defence to ensure respectful and healthy working conditions for tribal workers of the state.

The government on Monday gave its consent to BRO for recruiting over 11,800 workers from the tribal state provided it registers as an employer under the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act and does away with third party agencies and individuals recruiting on behalf of BRO.