North-east imbroglio: Exodus continues; 15-day ban on bulk SMSes

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Driven by rumours of impending attacks, the exodus of people from the north-east spread from Bengaluru to neighbouring cities on the third day on Friday, prompting the Centre to ban for 15 days bulk SMSes and MMSes across the country.

Notwithstanding assurances of safety by the Centre and the Karnataka government to the people of the Northeast, hordes of them living in Mysore, Mangalore and Kodagu made a beeline to the railway ticket counters here to return to their states.

More than 15,000 people have fled the city in the past two days following the rumours, officials said.
The Railways had sold 9,718 tickets for the two special trains that headed to Guwahati Thursday night, Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru, Anil Kumar Agarwal, said Friday morning.

Officials estimate the number of people from the north-east, including students, residing in Bengaluru in the range of 2.5 lakh and 2.75 lakh. In Chennai, over 1,000 people from the northeast were reported to have taken trains out of the city.

To check the spread of rumours, Centre on Thursday clamped a 15-day ban of bulk SMSes and MMSes across the country. The decision was taken after reports of widespread circulation of SMSes and MMSes containing misleading information about Assam violence and threats of attacks to people from the northeastern region.

Under the order, no one will be able to send more than 5 SMSes in one go from Friday and more than 20KB of data through mobile phones during the ban period.

The exodus issue figured in both Houses of Parliament with members expressing solidarity with the people hailing from the northeast.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said miscreants spreading rumours that have led to people belonging to northeast flee from Bengaluru, Pune and other parts of the country, should be brought to book and noted that at stake is not just unity and integrity of the country, but also communal harmony.