PRTC dispatched 32 buses to bring back stranded pilgrims
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Today Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) dispatched 32 buses including Volvo buses and HVAC buses to bring back stranded pilgrims from Nanded (Hazur Sahib) in Maharashtra. PRTC Chairman KK Sharma today morning flagged off the buses from Patiala bus stand to bring back the pilgrims.
Sharma said that PRTC has taken full safety of the drivers,conductors and were given food, medicines, sanitizers, masks, so that they don’t fell any inconvenience.
Earlier Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to allow the stranded Punjab pilgrims to return home from Nanded, after his Maharashtra counterpart said the Centre’s permission was required for the same.
Captain Amarinder first spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackery, who said permission would be needed from the central government for the return of the stranded pilgrims in view of the national lockdown.
The Punjab Chief Minister then wrote to Shah, urging him to allow the return of the pilgrims, stranded at Gurdwara Sri Nanded Sahib in Maharashtra amid lockdown due to COVID-19, by bus to Punjab.
In his letter, Captain Amarinder Singh said he had already spoken telephonically to his Maharashtra counterpart in this regard as a follow-up to his earlier letter of March 25. The Chief Minister also apprised Shah that the stranded pilgrims, mostly belonging to farming families, were extremely anxious to return Punjab in view of the Rabi harvesting season, which had commenced in the state from April 15.
The Chief Minister assured the Union Minister that all the pilgrims would, on their arrival in Punjab, be screened and quarantined as per the Government of India’s health protocol.
April,25,2020