CHENNAI: Twenty-two-year-old Babu Ganga heaved a sigh of relief as he prepared to board a special train at the Central station here on Saturday. Having spent over 45 days in a community shelter in the city, Babu is unlikely to forget his very first visit to Chennai. It was on March 18, he, along with three friends, reached here from Odisha to attend job interview at a reputed automobile company.
Like many others, the lockdown struck them unexpectedly. “It was my first attempt to land a job outside my own State. Since the trains were all cancelled, I have been staying in a community hall at Vyasarpadi along with over 150 people. I hardly slept three hours a day,” Babu recalled. On Saturday, as many as 1,110 people boarded the special train from Chennai to Jagan Nathapur in Odisha.
While 550 of them are migrant labourers, the rest have been staying in Corporation shelters since March 23. The special train was among the four services operated from the State by Southern Railway on the day.
Meanwhile, some migrant workers had to resort to agitations to make their contractors agree to relieve them. “We insisted at our employer to let us go home, but he tried to convince us. After 20 of us marched towards the Central station last week, he finally agreed,” said one Ritesh.
The authorities made sure that no one from the Corporation shelters departed with empty hands. They were given a bag each containing rice, pulses, bread, some grocery items and water bottle. Also, ICF Women’s Welfare Organisation distributed 1,200 sets of amenity kits to the travellers through Corporation zonal officer (VIII). Each kit contained a towel, biscuit packet and soap.
Four special trains on Saturday
Over 4,520 people from other States returned home by special trains from Chennai, Katpadi and Coimbatore on Saturday. Two special trains from Coimbatore to Akbarpur and Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh each carried about 1,140 migrant workers. The Katpadi - Bihar special train ferried over 1,140 people, most of them patients visiting the hospitals here and their caretakers. Through the special trains on May 6 and 8, the Southern Railway has carried over 7,800 stranded people to northern and eastern States.