Kolkata, March 26: Amid the country-wiude complete lochdown for 21 days due to coronavirus, West Bengal Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to 18 other chief ministers of state and appealed them to help the people of West Bengal stuck in their states. In the letter, she has appealed the state chief ministers to provide basic amenities to them.

Issuing a letter to thr CMs of Mamata Banerjee wrote, as quoted by news agency ANI, "Bengal has many workers - semi skilled and unskilled, working in different parts of the country. Due to the complete lockdown in the country for COVID-19 pandemic, many bengal workers could not travel back and are stuck at different state." Naveen Patnaik Govt to Set Up 1000-Bed Hospital to Treat COVID-19 Patients in Odisha, State CM Claims Hospital Will be Functional in a Fortnight.

Adding more, she wrote, "We have received informations that many such workers who are ordinary resident of Bengal are stuck in your states too. We are getting SOS calls from them. They are generally in groups of 50-10 and can be easily identified by the local administration. Since, its is not possible for us to reach any help to them, I take the opportunity to request you to kindly ask your administration to provide them with basic shelter, food and medical supporty during this period of crisis. We, in Bengal, are taking care ig such stuck people in our state."

Here's the ANI tweet:

Similar appeal was made by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He requested his all counterparts to assist people of Odisha stranded in various parts of the country with food, accommodation, and security. Adding on, he said that Odisha government will bear whatever cost is needed for their safekeeping.

Meanwhile, a 73-year-old man who tested positive for coronavirus died due to co-morbidity in Bhilwara in Rajasthan on Thursday, thus taking the death toll of the country to 17. However, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that total number of coronavirus cases climbed to 649 in India on Thursday and death remained to be 13 only. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 593, while 42 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2020 04:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).