‘Moving People Home’ plan extended by 2 weeks

The State had also planned a corona review meeting on May 15 at the Secretariat during which senior IAS officers designated as district special officers to address corona crisis will disclose the ground-level scenario of guest workers.

Though the number of protests from migrant workers has come down with large chunk leaving TN, a further enumeration is under way in Chennai, Tiruppur, Erode, Vellore and Coimbatore, a senior official told DT Next, stating that 80 per cent of the complaints received since last month from guest workers have been addressed.

“The CM in a meeting said that money should not be a criterion, affecting the travel of migrant worker. TN had also asked the stakeholder States to help and if it is not materialising TN will bear the expense on its own,” the top official added.

“In the past week, more than 40,000 people have been helped by the State to reach Karnataka and return Tamil Nadu. Lot of Tamils from Bangalore, Shimoga, Chikmagalur, returned and more enumeration is underway with Krishnagiri as the transit hub,” B Chandramohan, secretary, Minorities Welfare Department said. We have formed coordination committees and are in touch with district collectorates in Karnataka district. Most of them are sent through trains and buses. Those without cash are also sponsored by the state. Many such state-specific teams are working, and many trains have already left to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Odisha and West Bengal. TN had reduced the distress walking along roads and situation has by and large eased, the official added.