The Sikkim government will prepare an online registration system to facilitate the return of Sikkimese students and patients, who are stranded elsewhere, once the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown is lifted.

Chairing the meeting of the State Task Force for Covid-19 here on Thursday, Sikkim chief secretary S.C. Gupta issued instructions for the early preparation of the online registration system.

“The chief secretary said the entry of people from the two entry points of Rangpo and Melli checkposts would strictly be based on the online self-declaration forms filled by each individual. This way each person will be identified and regulated,” said a release issued here.

About 1,800 students and 400 patients and their families from Sikkim are stranded in different parts of the country. The vast majority of them are keen on returning home at the earliest.

The release said Dr P.T. Bhutia, the director-general-cum-secretary of the health department, briefed the meeting about the standard operating procedure (SOP) being prepared for the systematic screening and testing of Sikkimese people returning to the state once the lockdown is lifted.

The meeting also tasked the education department with overseeing the management of the returning students while the collectors of the four districts have been given the responsibility of making arrangements for the patients and their families.

The government has already provided grant of Rs 5,000 each to 1,613 of the 1,800-odd students stranded outside, and Rs 30,000 each to the families of the patients. “The chief secretary further directed that medical referrals outside the state is (sic) issued only in serious cases to limit the movement of people outside the State,” added the release.

Apart from the students and patients, anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 professionals from Sikkim are believed to be stranded in different parts of the country.

“Their situation is a little different from that of the students and patients in that they might not want to return home once the lockdown is lifted and instead may be keen to rejoin their respective jobs,” a senior bureaucrat who attended the meeting told The Telegraph.

Dipak Gurung, who works in a restaurant in Bangalore, said he would rather want the government to give them some financial help to tide over the crisis than make arrangement for their return home.

“I mean Sikkim is the only state in the country which is still Covid-19-free. Even if one of us was to carry the disease back home, all hell could break lose,” he said over phone.