Trains bound to the northeast through Chennai continued to be overcrowded as well on Sunday while the special control room set up by the city police to clear doubts of people of North East origin was flooded with calls since it started functioning on Friday evening.
A rough estimate by police indicated that over 750 people boarded three additional coaches of the Thiruvanathapuram – Guwahati Shalimar express from Chennai on Sunday morning. At noon, around 200 people boarded the Bengaluru – Patna train. Nearly 100 people were waiting at the railway station to board the Howrah express bound to Kolkata, police added.
Some passengers claimed they wanted to go home to make sure that their family members are safe and then come back. So far, over 8,000 to 10,000 people could have left from Chennai during the last four days. The total number of NE people fleeing the state during the same period is estimated to be around 16,000 to 18,000, the police said.
“We received over 80 calls on Saturday. Many of them were from other states. A good number of callers wanted to know the situation in Chennai and also enquired about the safety of their kin working or studying in Tamil Nadu. Some of the callers wanted to the details of trains leaving Chennai to NE states,” a senior police official said.
Among man callers, one was from state DGP K. Ramanujam who wanted to check if the control room lines had started functioning. Posing as landlord, he wanted to know how his tenant from Assam could go back to his native place.
City police had opened a special control room for people of North East origin after they started fleeing the city in fear of attacks. “The idea of setting up a special control room was to make sure that they don’t believe in rumours. If they have any problems or doubts they can contact 98402-95100, 96770-66100, 97890-88100 where Hindi speaking people are guiding and assisting them,” a senior police official said.