Over 1,700 stranded Mizos yet to return home: Official

More than 1,700 Mizos stranded in other parts of the country due to the lockdown are yet to return to their home state, a top Mizoram government official has said.

Most of them are stranded in Delhi and its adjoining areas, he said.

"Of the 1,700 stranded people who have registered themselves with the Mizoram government to return to the state, 1,000 are in Delhi and its adjoining areas while the rest are in different parts of the country," Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo told reporters on Tuesday.

The number, however, may increase as many people could not return in the previous schedule, he said.

As many as 6,373 stranded Mizoram residents have returned to the state by special trains from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Goa and other parts of the country during the lockdown, Chuaungo said.

Apart from them, more than 1,000 Mizos have returned to their home state from other parts of the Northeast, the official said.

A total of 1,360 stranded people returning from Maharashtra will be offloaded at Guwahati because of damage to railway tracks between Badarpur and Lumding in Assam, he said.

"The stranded people will be brought to Mizoram by road transport in consultation with the Assam government," Chuanugo said.

On whether total lockdown or stricter guidelines are required in Mizoram in the wake of detection of 12 new cases on Tuesday, the chief secretary said there is no need to place the state under total lockdown as of now.

However, if need be, stricter lockdown rules might be framed in consultation with the state disaster management and rehabilitation department, he added.