Evacuate stranded people of Nagaland in other states, asks Congress

Says many workers have lost their jobs and are out on the streets

Dimapur, May 18 (EMN): The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) on Monday demanded the government of Nagaland to arrange special trains and feeder transport to evacuate people of the state stranded in various parts of India.

Through a press release issued by its communication department, the NPCC expressed its concerns regarding the plight of workers and students from Nagaland stranded in different parts of the country. It stated that “55 days into lockdown many workers have lost their jobs and are out on the streets after being evicted for non-payment of house rent.”

“The ever looming threat of pandemic, racial attack and hunger are creating greater humanitarian crisis far beyond our imagination. Every passing day is becoming difficult to survive for majority of our people,” the statement read.

While mentioning that the state unit of the party has been extending help to the stranded people through its NPCC COVID-19 Task Force, it said that “the growing chorus of our people wanting to be evacuated is getting louder and louder” with all state governments in Northeast arranging special train to bring thousands of its citizens back in the past few days.

‘We therefore urge the state government to arrange special trains from different major cities of India and also to arrange feeder transport in co-ordination with host state to help stranded ones reach the originating station for onward journey to Nagaland. The evacuation process should be completed within a week by deploying additional manpower to monitor the situation in different states and a senior IAS officer whose position in the government will be given due weightage by his counterparts in other states to meet the urgent demands of the unfolding humanitarian crisis,’ the press release read.

‘Despite our earlier offer of bearing cost of train fares for needy workers and migrant labourers being turned down by state government, we offer our assistance in coordinating with Congress ruled states to evacuate our people. The state government stands to lose nothing by putting up collective effort in these extraordinary times,’ it added.