The Railway Police, Coimbatore Corporation authorities and Eera Nenjam, an NGO, have shown friendly gesture to six laborers from Andhra Pradesh who were stranded at the Coimbatore and Tirupur railway stations, over the last two days.
The laborers Nagarajan (42), Nagabooshan (65), Eswari (50), Narayanammal (40), Marappan (70) and Venkatasamy (65) were from Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh. Nagarajan was visually impaired and came to Tamil Nadu with relative Nagabooshan. The others worked at various places in Coimbatore and Tirupur.
Managing Trustee of Eera Nenjam P. Mahendiran told The Hindu that they took up menial jobs as construction workers, loadmen and as workers for breaking stones. It is learnt that they used to work for a few days and return home with money.
They did not have a job during the last few days. Without money for food and to return home, they begged for food and stayed at the railway station platform.
On Thursday, they were rescued by the Railway Police and brought to a corporation shelter. They were given food, new clothes and lodging. Keeping in mind the tense situation, arrangements were made for sending them home safely on Friday.
In addition to train tickets, the NGO also gave them some food for the journey. The stranded persons left Coimbatore in the Sabari Express in the evening.
“They will be reaching Chittoor close to midnight. We gave them our contact number and expect them to call us on reaching home safely,” he said.
Mr. Mahendiran said that the kindness shown to the labourers was a reflection of the hospitable attitude of the people of Tamil Nadu. “Their police were inhuman and killed labourers from Tamil Nadu. We hope the kindness that we showed to their labourers change their attitude towards Tamil Nadu,” he added.