GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has constituted a committee to organise the effort to bring back people stranded in other states owing to the lockdown.
APCC general secretaries, Pankaj Borbora and Ranjan Bora have been appointed convener and chairman of the committee respectively, a statement issued here by the party on Tuesday, said.
The development follows Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s decision that every Pradesh Congress Committee would bear the cost for rail travel of workers stranded outside their respective states.
The committee will function as a help desk and keep close contact with different states, AICC COVID control room and collect a database of the stranded people.
In order to coordinate the effort with the state government, a three-member delegation of APCC comprising Pankaj Borbora, Ranjan Bora and Kalyan Gogoi had called on state chief secretary, Kumar Sanjay Krishna last week.
“While we have undertaken to bear costs of rail travel of the concerned people, the success of our effort would also require the government’s cooperation as it administers critical logistics. We are pleased with the chief secretary’s response as he has assured all help and has forwarded our memorandum to additional DGP, G.P Singh who is the nodal officer for inter-state transportation of stranded people,” Borbora said in the statement.
The APCC has claimed that the help desk has received enthusiastic response and already about 25,000 people have communicated with it.
Borbora further said that in order to swiftly conduct the exercise the committee would try to secure the cooperation of different trade and railway workers’ unions.