BENGALURU: The second batch of 26 migrants – including five children – from Chhattisgarh, flew to Raipur on Thursday from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport. The adults were employed in Tamil Nadu and a bus shuttled them to Bengaluru to facilitate their departure.
This initiative was taken by the alumni of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), who also organised the first migrant flight from Bengaluru on June 4. Due to the limited number of migrant travellers this time, tickets were purchased on a regular Indigo flight heading to Raipur instead of booking a chartered flight. Vijay Grover, founder of Bangalore Media Foundation, who took care of logistics and food arrangements for the migrants, told TNIE, “The migrants worked in plantations.
A few worked as masons too. The group was supposed to take a migrant special train to Raipur from Chennai Central on Tuesday night but the situation was chaotic at the station and they could not board the train. One of them called NLSUI alumnus C N Nandakumar for help.
We decided to help them and the trip was confirmed only on Wednesday evening.” The tickets were taken care of NLSIU with the help of mobilised fund. The migrants were brought on Wednesday night from Chennai by a private bus, Grover said.
They reached the KIA airport at 5 am on Thursday. “They were made to wait at the parking area. We helped them enter the airport at 10am for the 1.10 pm regular flight. They reached Raipur by 2.35 pm,” he added. United Sikhs, a non-profit organisation, Nandakumar and Aarthi Challappa, NLSIU alumni played a key role in ensuring the trip was successful, he added.