bhubaneswar odisha chief minister naveen patnaik urged prime minister narendra modi on wednesday to continue with the restrictions on train and air travel to odisha at least till the end of june to contain the spread of covid19he made this request during the second phase of the prime ministers videoconference with chief ministersjune is the toughest month for odisha because a large number of migrants have returned and the monsoon has also started hence government of india should continue with the restrictions on train and air travel to odisha patnaik saidhe also drew the prime ministers attention to the fact that some people from odisha were still stranded in the gulf countries the government of india should take steps to bring them back as most of them are engaged in lowpaying jobs patnaik saidhe underlined the difficulties of the students set to appear in allindia examinations like the neet jeemain clat etc the nationallevel entrance examinations should be conducted only after the state level plusii examinations are completed the chief minister saidthe state government which has adopted different strategies to contain the spread of covid19 anticipates that regular train and flight services will add to the number of people who have returned to the state during the pandemic so far as many as 556443 odias have returned to the state including 2498 on wednesdaypeople are returning by trains buses other vehicles and also by special planes more than 25 lakh people have already returned to the state by 239 shramik special trains an official saidodishas covid19 tally increased after the arrival of migrant workers from states with a large number of coronavirus cases such as gujarat maharashtra telangana kerala delhi tamil nadu andhra pradesh etcsimilarly more than 2000 people have returned to odisha by planes from the uae the us kuwait oman nepal and other countriesincidentally odishas first positive coronavirus case was an italy returnee an official said adding that therefore the bjd government wants to restrict train and air travel to the state in june as with the onset of monsoon the flulike disease is likely to get aggravated