Ramaswami: Patna: It is official now. As many as 17 lakh migrant workers from Bihar, including thousands of students in Kota, are stranded across the country due to the sudden lockdown announced on March 24 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and there was no plan to bring them back yet. The Nitish Kumar government, in its response to a letter from the Patna high court registrar on the representation from advocate Ajay Thakur, officially admitted that there were 17 lakh migrant callers, who said they were stranded outside the state due to the lockdown. “Most of the nearly 17 lakh callers (migrant workers) at the Bihar government helplines have been requesting the state government to bring them back. However, the state government has always maintained its stand that the existing guidelines to enforce lockdown do not permit any such travel”, the government said.