Express News Service
CHENNAI: Migrant workers in the city are heaving a sigh of relief. After being stuck here for months, they have slowly started leaving Chennai by private buses since Wednesday. Around 2,500 workers employed in Sowcarpet and Broadway in stainless steel manufacturing companies and in small shops, have left for their native villages in Rajasthan, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh. That apart, around 300 medical tourists stranded in the city left for Assam and Northern States.
They were all sent by private buses and vans, from Sowcarpet, Vepery, Greams Road, Adyar and Broadway. The vehicles were issued transit passes as the transportation expenses being borne by the travellers themselves. Rajasthani Association Tamilnadu and Bharatiya Seva Sangam coordinated with the State government to arrange passes for the vehicles. They also provided food for workers and patients.
“My family has been worried sick about my safety,” says Bitu Madu, a native of Jodhpur, working at a garment shop in Sowcarpet for the past eight years. “They think if I die here my body would be thrown on the roadside. They want to see me at any cost. I spent my entire salary on the bus ticket, but I shall surely return once the shops reopen.” Most shops have given only 50 per cent salary to their employees. The remaining,they have been told, would be settled on reopening.
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Ajay Lal of Siriyari town in Rajasthan says: “I visited my home town in November last year. They never insist me to visit very often. I don’t have enough savings to give my family, but they desperately wanted to see me this time. Had I not got the bus, I would have set out by foot.” Vinod O Jain of Rajasthani Association Tamilnadu says the workers are in trauma. “Unless we send them home now, its impossible to make them return for work.”
Lalit Kumar O Jain of the stainless steel merchants association says it’s not financially viable for the owners to pay salary or provide food to the labourers for months, considering the shops and units are shut. “Given that there is no sign for reopening in May, we have asked them to visit their natives. Even though there was no business, we paid 50 per cent of the salary to them.” Around 1.5 lakh natives of Rajasthan and Odisha are employed in steel manufacturing factories here.
UP apathy leaves TN pilgrims stranded
Vellore: About 60 pilgrims and tourists from Tamil Nadu, languishing in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh without proper food and accommodation, have been crying out for help but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Though they had set out from different places of Tamil Nadu including Tiruchy, Virudhunagar and Tiruvannamalai separately, they were united on the streets of Lucknow when they heard each other speaking in Tamil. Balasubramaniam (70) from Tiruchy alleged: “As soon as they identified that we are Tamil, they did not even listen to our demands.” Vellore MP DM Kathir Anand shot off a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary on Thursday seeking his intervention into the issue.
Tough times
Thousands of workers from North India work in stainless steel units and in small shops in Sowcarpet and Broadway
They were all sent by private buses and vans, from Sowcarpet, Vepery, Greams Road, Adyar and Broadway
Rajasthani Association Tamilnadu and Bharatiya Seva Sangam coordinated with the State government to arrange passes for the vehicles
Most shops have given only 50 per cent salary to their employees
Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2020/may/08/migrant-workers-leave-chennai-in-private-buses-2140591.html
