Gandhinagar: Movement of migrants from Surat to other districts in Saurashtra and north Gujarat will be allowed from Thursday, State cabinet minister Ganpat Vasava told media persons.

Minister Vasava said, ‘today at Surat district collector office, a meeting was held to allow inter-district movement. Online application will need to be filed online. Initially only luxury buses will be allowed. Detail instructions will be issued later. Online applications will be accepted from tomorrow and inter district travel will start from day after tomorrow.Passengers will be screened first and then allowed for travel. Once the application is filed, they will be sent to destination district collector office. Collector office at destination place will communicate source district about what number of passengers or buses should be sent on particular day. This is important because destination district will need to make arrangement of screening etc issues. So far the government has decided only to allow private luxury buses.’

It is learnt that only 30 passengers will be allowed to travel in 70-seat bus. As most of the buses are sleeper coaches with provision of seperate berths, social distancing will not be an issue.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel meanwhile in a tweet said, ‘An order to allow movement of people from Surat city to other districts of the State has been issued on 4th of May. As per the conditions and instructions provisioned in this order, relaxations are given for people of Surat and other districts to travel to their native districts. The order should not be interpreted as if only Surat to Saurashtra movement is allowed. As per the order, Surat based people will also be able to travel to North Gujarat.’

pic.twitter.com/jZ93Hciao8

— Nitin Patel (@Nitinbhai_Patel) May 5, 2020

Surat MLA Harsh Sanghavi also clarified in his tweet that the decision is not only for Sauarshtra but for the people stuck in Surat from entire Gujarat. During initial four days starting from tomorrow, only buses will be allowed, later on cars will also be permitted.

#Surat Update!! pic.twitter.com/Br2PWcBmU4

— Harsh Sanghavi (@sanghaviharsh) May 5, 2020

It’s worth to mention that yesterday, Secretary of Chief Minister’s Office, Ashwani Kumar had in his daily online briefing said that the government was thinking about permitting movement from Surat to Saurashtra. He said screening in such cases will be done on departure and arrival both places. 14-day quarantine post arrival at destination place will be mandatory. A person arrived at destination will not be allowed to travel back in one month period. Ashwani Kumar had added that the government was still finalizing the guidelines. He had said that the government was concerned about possible spread of Covid19 infection if such movement is allowed.

Diamond industry in Surat employs lakhs of people who migrated from villages and towns of Saurashtra region, mainly from the districts of Amreli and Bhavnagar. Amreli is at present, the only district in Gujarat that has so far not witnessed even a single Covid19 case.

DeshGujarat