Plan to add coaches called off

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Gripped by rumours, people from the northeast continued to flee the city for the third consecutive day.
On Saturday, 150 people of the northeast arrived from the southern districts to board Howrah-bound trains. Initially, Southern Railway planned to add additional coaches to trains leaving to the northeast, but as the crowd was minimal, the more was given up.

During the last three days, around 50 additional coaches have been added to special and regular trains to help the workers and students from the northeastern region leaving Chennai.

“In spite of assurances of safety and no untoward incidents targetting them being reported in the state, a few groups from the city suburbs and Madurai assembled at Central to board the trains and they were accommodated in the evening Howrah Express,” a source with railway protection force said, adding that the situation was not alarming in Chennai, compared to some other south Indian cities.

The helpline set up by the police received more than 100 calls with most people wanting accommodation on trains.

Though about 7,000 passengers have left Chennai through the northeast-and Howrah-bound trains, usually 4,000-5,000 people leave for their hometowns during the weekends and festivals, a senior railway official said.

Mr K. Bhutia, a 20-year-old working as a security man, was rushing to the Central station as his parents were insisting he return home. “My aged parents are concerned about the family properties and are feeling nervous,” he said.

However, not many students are leaving the city. “The city’s colleges have many students from the northeast. We are safe here,” said a student Samten Dolma.

Attacks fabricated, claims Mos

The Union minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, V. Narayanasamy, on Saturday termed the rumours about attacks on people from the northeastern states as totally “unwarranted and fabricated” and said that adequate protection is being given by state governments to people from that region.

“It is totally unwarranted, false and fabricated to create panic among the people. Due protection is being given by the state governments,” Narayanasamy said here on Saturday.

The minister claimed that PM Manmohan Singh and Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde have reiterated that people from the northeastern states would be given protection by the state governments.

The TN government has also taken steps to reach out to the northeastern people.

TN ensures safety of people from NE

Following up on the promise made by chief minister J. Jayalalithaa that the government would ensure protection to all persons from the northeastern states, either studying or working in Tamil Nadu, chief secretary Debendranath Sarangi on Saturday held discussions with senior officials regarding measures to be taken in this regard.

“We discussed various initiatives to ensure there is no attack on any northeast migrant worker or student.

Though there has been no incident in Tamil Nadu, we do not want to take any chances,” said a senior official who had attended the chief secretary’s meeting, which was also attended by the divisional railway manager P.K. Mishra.

The meeting reviewed the situation, particularly the exodus of northeastern people.

It was noticed that most of those who were leaving for home were migrant workers — not students — and they crowded the Central and Egmore railway stations only to make use of this opportunity to get home for a short holiday.

“The exit of northeastern workers and students from here has come down significantly. There were less than 200 people leaving from Chennai on Saturday,” a RPF officer told Deccan Chronicle.

The officer said that his men helped NE travellers at Central and Egmore railway stations.

“We did not even check their tickets. We did not want to increase their suffering,” the RPF officer said.
Sarangi’s meeting at the secretariat was attended by home secretary R. Rajagopal, director general of police K. Ramanujam, ADGP (law and order) S. George, Chennai police commissioner J.K. Tripathy, and IG (intelligence) Amaresh Pujari.

They discussed, among other things, increasing patrolling in places with high presence of migrants and steps to identify people spreading rumours to disrupt harmony, sources said.