Emotional scenes prevailed at the Coimbatore railway station on Friday evening, as the first batch of migrant workers hailing from Bihar were sent to their hometown.
Coimbatore: Emotional scenes prevailed at the Coimbatore railway station on Friday evening, as the first batch of migrant workers hailing from Bihar were sent to their hometown.
The efforts of the district administration at last paid off, as they successfully completed the due process of taking census of migrant workers in the district and expediting travel arrangements to send them back to their hometowns.
Migrant workers registered on first come first basis to leave their home towns were selected for travel and subjected to preliminary body testing.
Likewise, 1140 migrant workers from Bihar who were staying in several parts of Coimbatore district -- North Coimbatore, Pollachi, Sulur and Kinathukadavu were approved to be sent today through a special train from Coimbatore railway station.
Ahead of allowing them to board the train, the migrant workers were subjected to preliminary testing including checking body temperature. The Police provided them with masks, soaps and food for their safe travel. The migrant passengers also were sensitised on social distancing and basic hygiene to be practised during their travel.
Atlast the train left at 8:22 PM from Coimbatore to Bihar with 1140 passengers.
Speaking about it, District Collector K Rajamani informed that more than one lakh migrant workers are employed in Coimbatore. Around 22,000 migrant workers have requested to travel back to their home town and arrangements are being made to send them back.
"Out of this, 1,140 workers have been sent in the first phase to Bihar, today. The remaining workers will be sent to their respective hometowns like Odisha, Bihar, UP,West Bengal, Jharkand and Asaam in a phased manner. Of the one lakh migrant workers, 22,000 people have requested to travel back to their home towns, while the remaining workers have opted to continue in their jobs here. All the expenses for the travel will be borne by the TN government", told the Collector.
According to the Collector, two more special trains will leave from Coimbatore on Saturday morning.