Lockdown: 4,000 Andhra fishermen leave Gujarat in buses

Ahmedabad, Apr 29 () At least 4,000 fishermen fromAndhra Pradesh, who were stranded in Gujarat amid the COVID-19lockdown, were sent back home in 60-odd private buses fromVeraval in Gir-Somnath district, an official said onWednesday.

The state government has also arranged for buses toferry migrant workers of neighbouring states who were strandedin different parts Gujarat, he said.

Following talks with the Andhra Pradesh government,the state government hired around 60 private buses to ferry4,000 Andhra fishermen to Visakhapatnam from Veraval, saidManish Bharadwaj, secretary of the Animal Husbandry andFisheries department.

"These buses started their journey from Veraval onMonday evening and the last bus set off on Wednesday morning.The fishermen will reach Visakhapatnam after two days on theroad," he said.

Migrant fishermen from Andhra Pradeshwork for boatowners in Gujarat and spend around 10 months in the state, theofficial said.

"Earlier, we had allowed fishermen from Maharashtraand Daman to return by sea. However, it would take five daysto reach Visakhapatnam by sea and we would have also neededlarge trawlers. Which is why we decided to hire buses andtransport them by road," Bhardwaj said.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government has so far ferried4,500 stranded migrants in buses to Rajasthan, Punjab andMadhya Pradesh, additional chief secretary (labour andemployment) Vipul Mitra said.

Far away states including Uttar Pradesh will have tosend their own buses to take back migrant workers, he added. PJT PDARU ARU