Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to 18 other Chief Ministers urging them to "shelter" and "take care of" migrant workers from Bengal who have been stuck because of the 21-day lockdown. Addressing the respective Chief Ministers, Banerjee has maintained the migrant labourers from the state are stuck all across and respective state governments should help them out, urging them "to provide basic shelter, food and medical support". In the same letter, Banerjee has assured all the Chief Ministers that people of their states, who are in Bengal right now, are also being taken care of by the state government. Soon after receiving information that people from Bengal, mainly semi-skilled and unskilled workers, who have failed to return to the state and got stuck at different parts of the country, Banerjee wrote to her counterparts requesting "humanitarian support in this hour of crisis" to ensure safety of the states residents in whichever part of the country they are. SOS calls from the stranded caught the attention of the state government. "They are in groups of 50 to 100 and can be easily identified by the local administration," Banerjee stated in the letter adding that Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha will be passing on the details to his counterparts in all the states so that necessary support can be provided to them at the earliest. She wrote to the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. She also stated in the letter that "since it is not possible for us to provide any help to them, I take the opportunity to request you to kindly ask your administration to provide them with basic shelter, food and medical support" to the people stuck in other states. The state government has helped 52 residents of Murshidabad to return home who were stuck in West Midnapore. Leading by example and demonstrating how to observe social distancing, while in public spaces, the Chief Minister, who visited several markets to take stock, is working round-the-clock to ensure that the people of the state remain safe in this time of crisis. With the measures taken by the state government only one person was found suffering from the disease in the past two days. The state government has now stated that any "private individual (not more than two people together) going to procure essential items and those engaged in the delivery of newspapers need not have any movement passes". The state government has also formed a committee comprising experts from different fields of medical science. At the same time, the state government has decided to release Rs 1,164 crore to provide pension in advance to Jai Bangla Scheme beneficiaries for the months of April and May. In a bid to battle Corona, various organisations and people from all walks of life have come forward to donate to the West Bengal Emergency Relief Fund. A 66-year-old Nayabad resident, who was admitted to a private hospital on EM Bypass on March 23 after suffering from typhoid, tested positive for Coronavirus on Thursday, taking the total number of COVID-19 affected persons to 10 in the state so far.

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