New Delhi, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday that the major challenge is the return movement of the people from Jammu and Kashmir living in other parts of the country and the labourers who are keen to move back to their respective states.

The issue came up during the discussion on COVID-19 related issues with councillors/ corporators from the across the Union Territory of J&K.

In a one-and-a-half-hour video conference interaction, Dr Singh exchanged inputs with representatives of various municipal bodies. The discussion included Chandra Mohan Gupta, Mayor Jammu, Hilal Shah from Anantnag, Dr Ishey from Leh, Naresh Kumar from Kathua, Vijay Kumar Sharma from Hiranagar, Riyaz Ahmad Mir from Kupwara, Dr Yogeshwar Gupta from Udhampur and others representatives from the UT.

He said he has been receiving requests from students from Jammu & Kashmir who are living in different parts of the country as well as from their parents back home.

He said that there is an inference to be drawn from district Kathua, which had been corona-free in spite of a huge influx of people after the declaration of lockdown. It reported a corona positive case last evening when a person working in Maharashtra chose to return to his village in Hiranagar without following the prescribed guidelines.

Dr Singh also complimented the elected representatives of all the municipal bodies for ensuring perfect coordination between civil society and the administration for effective implementation of government's guidelines regarding COVID-19 crisis management and offering their full cooperation in ensuring lockdown.

He also elicited cooperation of public representatives, particularly the local body representatives who had grassroots contact, to explain to the people that the movement and return can happen only in small groups and in a very strategized and discreet manner.

Dr Singh appreciated the spirit of the civil society, which contributed ration and food to labourers in the last four weeks.