More migrant workers in Coimbatore want to return home

Neeraj Kumar, who is from Bihar and is employed in Coimbatore for the last 10 years, walks to a government office at Singanallur every day, to register his name to go home.

“Every day, they ask me to come the next day. But I am not able to take a train to Bihar. Even two months ago, I had booked ticket. But I am not able to use it now,” he says.

However, Neeraj’s friend Ashok boarded the train on Thursday evening.

With 13 trains already operated to help workers from Coimbatore reach their home States, and five more in the pipeline, a number of workers are going to the railway station every day from different parts of the district to make an attempt to catch a train for their home town. The police talk to them and help them go back to their places of stay.

Rohit Kumar, another worker from Bihar and about 50 other migrant workers, did not know that they need to register online to take a train to go home. They were walking to the railway junction a couple of days ago when the police stopped them and explained the procedure.

“We do not know the procedures. We only want to go home. We tried walking to the States yesterday too,” he says.

“One day, it was Thudiyalur and today it was Sulur. Every day, groups of migrant workers try to come to the railway station,” says Coimbatore MP PR Natarajan.

Arrangements

“No one has a clear, verified number on migrant workers employed in Coimbatore district. The district administration planned to help 20,000 workers return. Those who are staying back should be given provisions. And, arrangements should be made to enable all those who want to leave to take trains to their home towns,” he says.

The MP met Collector K. Rajamani here on Thursday in this regard.

There are also reports of one or two workers committing suicide as they are unable to go back home.