Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday urged telecom companies to offer free services for migrant workers for a month.

Gandhi reached out to telcos and highlighted the situation of the migrant workers trying to reach to their native places amid the nationwide lockdown announced to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

Following the lockdown, thousands of migrant workers across the country walking hundreds of kilometres to home without sufficient resources had surfaced.

“Today, millions of migrant workers across our nation are trying to find their way home to their families, battling hunger, thirst and disease. Many have run out of money on their phone recharges. This means they are unable to call their families or reach out for help,” she had tweeted.

The Congress leader wrote separate letters to Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani, and chiefs of BSNL and Vodafone.

“I urge you to make the call facilities free in the relevant areas for the next one month to let them contact their families," she further wrote. “Ideally this should happen for the next one month so that the men, women and children who are making what is possibly the most difficult journey of their lives can be given some assistance to be able to speak to their families,” she captioned a letter posted on Twitter.

According to previous reports, the Centre on Sunday asked States and UT administrations to seal State and district borders to stop the movement of migrant workers. They will be put in 14-days quarantine at their respective destinations for violating the lockdown.

The centre has also urged landlords to forego a month’s rent for migrant workers and not ask them to vacate the premises as per the report.

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