The Tripura government has decided to send back migrant workers to their respective states with the Centre’s help.

Chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb posted on Facebook on Monday that the Tripura government, with the help of the Centre, has decided to send back 33,000 migrant workers to their respective states by train and has formed a team comprising senior officials for their transport.

Later, chief secretary Manoj Kumar said there were more than 33,000 migrant workers and their family members in the state, belonging largely to Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal and as the work season was getting over, they would be sent to their native places primarily by train. The matter has already been taken up with the Union home ministry, the respective states and the ministry of railways and a team had been formed for the purpose. The general manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway will be the nodal officer for arranging trains for the people stranded in Tripura, he added.

The team of senior officials formed by the state government includes principal secretary S.R. Kumar, special secretary Deepa D. Nair, labour commissioner Tapash Roy and joint transport commissioner Ajit Debnath. They will facilitate and coordinate transfer of migrant workers according to the standard operating procedure, Kumar added.

A memorandum issued by the general administration (personnel and training) department observed that the people of Tripura stranded in other states because of the lockdown might be in great hardship and wanting to return.

The government has appointed seven high-ranking officials to look after residents of Tripura, such as migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and others, stranded in other states. Six nodal officers will each focus on one state having a large number of people from Tripura while one officer will engage with the rest of the states.

Additional secretary Vikash Singh will be in charge of arranging matters for people stranded in Tamil Nadu, secretary Sahadev Das for Telangana, secretary Tanusree Debbarma for Karnataka, secretary Soumya Gupta for Assam, secretary Apurba Roy for West Bengal and secretary Kiran Gitte for Maharashtra. Additional secretary Debananda Reang will look after people from Tripura stranded in other states.Deb wrote on his Facebook post, “We are committed to helping everyone, please co-operate with Government. Don’t panic”.