After the plight of a few thousand fishermen from Andhra Pradesh who were stranded in Gujarat amid the COVID-19 lockdown came to light, the Centre has made arrangements for them to return home.
In a press release, the Union Home Ministry said that it was coordinating with the state governments of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh to facilitate the arrangement of buses to ferry more than 3,800 stranded fishermen.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani while Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Kishan Reddy, spoke to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
"In order to ensure strict confirmation to the laid guidelines and norms, the convoy of the busses will be accompanied by officials from the Gujarat government. All the buses have been provided with sufficient quantity of sanitisers and masks. The fishermen were happy and expressed their gratitude to the government for their intervention," the press release stated.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Kishan Reddy said that the fishermen had been facing several difficulties over the last 35 days.
"We have spoken to the Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh and we have made arrangements to do health check-ups and then shift them home. We are even making sure that each bus has food for the fishermen for two days and other facilities that they require. All arrangements have been made," he said.
In coordination with the Govts of AP & Gujarat, facilitated the safe return of 3800 fisherman belonging to AP, who previously went for fishing - for livelihood purpose, to Gir.
— G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) April 28, 2020
Guj Govt has arranged for buses to ferry them to Andhra, where they’ll have a home to #StaySafe. pic.twitter.com/Xee0CZi3w5
While 36 buses left through the day on Tuesday, more buses were expected to begin their journey on Tuesday night and on Wednesday.
On Monday, Jagan Mohan Reddy approved a file to bring the fishermen back by spending Rs 3 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
Stranded due to the lockdown, many of the fishermen had complained that they were forced to remain on their boats with inadequate food and poor sanitation. They also alleged that the Gujarat government refused to shift them to quarantine facilities.
TNM had earlier spoken to the stranded fishermen, who had pointed out that two people also died on board the boats, while waiting for the lockdown to end.
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