The Greater Chennai Police facilitated the return of over 1 lakh migrant labourers to their hometowns, by helping them board special trains, and obtaining e-passes for those who were ready to go by buses.
In the Greater Chennai Police jurisdiction, migrant workers were scattered across the lengths and breadth of the city. Hence, planning and co-ordination were key to their smooth movement. Efforts were put in to first of all enumerate the workers willing to go back to their native places and also to prioritize problematic and needy cases.
A major chunk of the migrant workers were from the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha. These states were completely dealt with by the Greater Chennai Police.
The migrant workers were enumerated at various levels, those who registered online on the State government website, at industrial labour camps /construction sites, those who came to the police stations, those stranded in lodges, mansions and rented houses and those in Chennai Corporation shelters.
Additional Commissioner of Police, South, Prem Anand Sinha said those who were desperate to go home and started walking were intercepted by the police and sent to camps. Special nodal officers were nominated in each police district and elaborate planning was done based on the availability of trains in the next few days. Buses were provided by Chennai Corporation and police personnel escorted them from where they were staying to the railway stations.
He added that another challenge was to avoid crowding at the railway stations. To tackle that, checking points were made at all the approach roads leading to the railway stations. Many desperate migrant workers who walked to the railway stations were taken to the nearby police station and all their details were obtained and they were accommodated in the next train available.
Regarding online applications, more than 75,000 applications were disposed of by taking help from the call centres to find out their willingness and SMS messages were sent to them informing them of the timing and reporting place for the next available train. Police stations for reporting were selected based on ease of access and sufficient space.
“The listing of passengers for each train, including all details in the particular format, was done by the police. Hindi-speaking police personnel were identified for facilitation at the railways station, and communicating with the migrant workers,” said Mr. Prem Anand Sinha.
