Actor Sonu Sood sent back as many as 180 migrants workers to Silchar in Assam from Mumbai in a chartered AirAsia flight on Tuesday. Sood has recently garnered immense praise from celebrities, politicians as well as common people for arranging free transport and food for migrant workers stranded in Mumbai.
AirAsia in a statement said, "It was a pleasure working with Sood on this initiative, which had inspired many others to support these efforts".
The 46-year-old actor has started a 'Ghar Bhejo' (send home) initiative with friend Neeti Goel. So far, Sood has flown a total of 520 migrants to their home states. Sood paid for the airfare of 167 migrant workers to reach Bhubaneswar from Kochi on May 29. On June 5, he paid for the air travel of 173 more migrants who returned home to Dehradun from Mumbai, according to CNBCTV18. All three flights were operated by AirAsia India.
Meanwhile, it was AirAsia's 12th flight under the 'Umeed Ki Udaan' banner. 'Umeed ki Udaan' was started by AirAsia India to assist migrant workers reach their homes during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
Amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown in India, visuals of millions of stranded migrants trudging across hundreds of kilometers have surfaced. In order to mitigate the miseries faced by the migrant workers, the Centre, with the help of state governments had launched "Shramik special trains" on May 3.
According to the Central government, till June 3, over 4,200 'Shramik Special' trains had been deployed to transport migrant workers to their native places. And, over one crore stranded migrant workers have been sent to their destinations, the Centre added.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court directed the Centre and state governments to send all of them to their native places with the next 15 days.
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