Close to 900 fishermen, who had been stranded in Gujarat for more than a month due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, returned to their native state of Andhra Pradesh on Friday. The first batch of the stranded fishermen took a circuitous bus route to their native state.
Leaving Gujarat in 12 buses on Wednesday, the stranded fishermen entered Andhra Pradesh at the Garikapadu border checkpost ending their long journey.
Majority of the fishermen in the batch that returned to Andhra Pradesh on Friday, belong to Srikakulam district. While 700 of the 887 fishermen are from Srikakulam district, 98 hail from Vizianagaram district, and 77 belong to Visakhapatnam. The group also includes a few fishermen belonging to Odisha and Chattisgarh, besides East Godavari district.
The local authorities, consisting of peoples' representatives, police and local administration, waited patiently at the border to welcome the homesick group.
District SP Ravindranath Babu said that the fishermen would be sent to their respective districts with a police escort.
"Once you reach your respective districts, your details will be taken and you will be sent to your native place. No one needs to take any tension," he told the gathering.
More than 4,500 fishermen who had gone to Gujarat for fishing activities, got stuck at Veraval when the nationwide lockdown was imposed from March 24.
The lockdown extension, further increased their hardships as many of them were forced to stay in the fishing boats amid dwindling supplies of essentials.
During their stay in Gujarat, two of the stranded fishermen even died, allegedly due to stress.
Finally, things began moving last week, with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy taking up the issue with Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy. CM Jagan also spoke to his Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani.
The Andhra government cleared the file for repatriation of the stranded fishermen by bus at a cost of Rs 3 crore.
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(IANS inputs)