VELLORE: Around 11,000 people from various states continue to be stranded in Vellore district and have been frequently thronging the collectorate at Sathuvachari demanding that their return journey be expedited.
“The home states of the stranded people are working out arrangements to facilitate their return,” Vellore SP Pravesh Kumar told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
“We have nothing to do with arranging the transportation facility. It is the responsibility of the home states,” Pravesh Kumar noted, adding, "Our role stops with screening the stranded persons before boarding."
About 9,000 patients and their kin who visited CMC Hospital and 2100 migrant workers have been stranded in Vellore district ever since the lockdown came into effect in March. Most of them are from north and northeastern states.
Recently, several patients and their attendants left for their home states after arranging ambulances and cabs.
However, the crew of the ambulances and cabs ran into trouble as they were blocked by local authorities in Odisha and Jharkhand. They were allowed to go only after the Tamil Nadu government had intervened and took up the matter with the state governments.
The Vellore district administration had instructed the owners of lodges/mansions not to oust them for not paying the rental charges. The district authorities, earlier, declared that the district administration would bear 25 per cent, the owners of the lodges/mansions another 25 per cent of the costs while the home states of the stranded people must bear the remaining 50 per cent.
However, a man went to the Madras High Court challenging the order and the court had issued a stay on it.