Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan arranges flights for migrants

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan stepped in on Wednesday to help stranded migrants in Mumbai
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan arranges flights for migrants

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan stepped in on Wednesday to help stranded migrants in Mumbai to reach their homes in Uttar Pradesh. Bachchan arranged for four special flights to send about 700 people to their homes.

Two more flights with migrant workers took off on Thursday, said sources close to the actor adding that he wanted to book a train for the migrants but the logistics did not work out.

The flights were 'organised' on Bachchan's directive by his close aide Rajesh Yadav, managing director of his production company AB Corp Ltd.

The flights took off from Mumbai for Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Varanasi on Wednesday morning with 180 passengers in each, the sources said.

Earlier Bachchan had also sent 10 buses for 300 migrants to reach their villages in UP. The buses went to Lucknow, Allahabad and other places in UP. The buses were flagged off by Yadav on behalf of the superstar and was done in partnership with with the dargahs in Mahim and the Haji Ali.

Bachchan's magnanimity evoked a wave of gratitude from the poor migrant workers reaching home free of cost in flights.

Earlier in the week, actor Sonu Sood too had arranged a special flight to send 180 Assamese migrants home. Last month, he helped 177 workers stuck in Kerala to fly home to Odisha.

Sood in fact has been hailed as a hero amid the migrant crisis during the lockdown. The actor so far has arranged buses and helped around 18,000-20, 000 people reach their home in states such as Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The lockdown, which began on March 25, left lakhs of migrants stranded in different parts of the country. With no money and no work, many walked, cycled or hitchhiked their way to villages hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kilometres away. (IANS) 

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