Workers from Tripura await train to go home, but see no response

CHENNAI: It’s been four months since hundreds of

guest workers

from

Tripura

have been waiting to get home. The last

train

from city to take them home was two weeks ago. The workers are now running out of money and patience.

“We have been calling local officials repeatedly, trying to find out when the next train will arrive to take us home, but there is no

response

,” said Suman Nath, who along with 200 others from Tripura, is stranded in the city. A

native

of Udaipur in Tripura, Suman had come to Chennai a few years ago to work in a hotel management firm. However, he was asked to leave when the lockdown was imposed. “Our contractor left without paying us, the past four months have been really hard,” he said.

While Suman and his friends are living in a rented room, many others are living in community halls in Tambaram, Pallikaranai and Egmore, pining to go home.

There are reports doing rounds that there may be no more trains to the north eastern state since its

government

and authorities are not willing to take them back fearing spread of the virus, the workers said.

“This has made everyone very scared and depressed,” said Lucy T R, another stranded native residing in Tambaram. She said all guest workers have been repeatedly filling out forms to travel back home, but in vain. “There is absolutely no response. Governments of other northeastern states are reaching out to their people but we are left helpless. We want to go home,” she said.

Karthik Srinivasan, a social worker who has been providing essentials to stranded workers, “They are all pining to go back to their families. Until then we are all, including the state authorities, doing our best to ensure their safety here.”