Chandigarh - Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask the Railways ministry to allocate special trains to repatriate pilgrims stranded in Takth Hazur Sahib in Nanded and Takht Patna Sahib in Patna since three weeks back to Punjab.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Union minister said there were around 3,000 pilgrims stranded in Hazoor Sahib and around 2,000 at Patna Sahib. She said the pilgrims, who included young children and elderly parents, were undergoing great hardships due to the extended lockdown. "They are constrained in the Gurdwara premises at both places and are surviving on food and shelter provided by the gurdwara managements".

She stressed in the letter that now with the wheat harvesting season starting from April 15 it had become even more important to ensure the return of the pilgrims to their homes. She said the income of the the entire year of the concerned families was dependent on optimum harvesting of the wheat crop as it was their only source of sustenance.