Migrant worker wants flight back to home village in Uttar Pradesh

Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad district collectorate which has been processing thousands of online applications by persons who want to travel during the lockdown, and also coordinating the return of migrant labourers back to their respective states, has come across a few amusing requests and applications.

Even as trains are being arranged to transport thousands of migrant workers back to their respective states, one migrant worker, in his application, has mentioned that he would like to be ferried back to his native village in Uttar Pradesh by plane.

In the middle of lockdown 2.0, the district collectorate received an online travel request application from a person who wanted to visit Mount Abu for a day. Although the applicant did not specify the reason for the visit to Mount Abu, it was not too difficult a guesswork for collectorate staff, who turned it down.

An official in the collectorate said that they have received a large number of calls from people who are not actually migrant workers, but want to desperately get on the Shramik Special trains. “One person kept pleading, repeating that he worked several hours a day and thus should be considered as a migrant labourer,” the official said.

Most of the heads for which permission has been granted by the collectorate during the lockdown include medical emergencies, industrial units, and other essential services.