RailEnquiry

GUWAHATI: A special train will chug out of Guwahati railway station on September 1 for Bangalore carrying the first batch of students and workers from the northeast who had fled Karnataka and other southern states in the first week of August after few of them received threatening SMSs.Last week, Karnataka deputy chief minister and home minister R Ashoka and the state DGP visited Assam and Manipur and appealed to those who fled Karnataka to return soon and assured them adequate security.The Assam government has also set up a helpline for students and employees to register their names and details of engagements in the southern states. "The objective is to have a database so that we can directly take up with southern state governments the issue of facilitating retention of NE people in their jobs and continuation of studies in their institutes. Since August 25, 150 students and employees have registered with us," an official source said.Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said here, "The first train carrying people back to southern states will leave on September 1 from Guwahati. I have been told that all the seats have been booked. This is good news. I hope this continues and our people go back to their places of work and studies."The southern railways had run as many as five special trains besides the scheduled train from Bangalore to Guwahati to bring the people of NE origin who were fleeing several cities in the southern region. Over nearly one week of exodus, about 30,000 people came back to the northeast.

Lakhs of students and professionals from the seven northeastern states are living in Bangalore and Hyderabad, which is among the top favourite destinations for young people from the region after New Delhi. Several youths from the region also comprise a large chunk of private security guards in the southern states besides Maharashtra and Goa. There are an estimated 2.5 lakh people of NE origin either studying or working in Bangalore alone.

The state government had said the exodus was just panic fleeing and there were no incidents of violence in the southern states. Gogoi had sent four cabinet ministers to Bangalore and Hyderabad on August 17 to persuade the NE people from making panic flight to their homes.

The special train will leave Guwahati at a scheduled time of 1.15 pm and is expected to arrive in Bangalore on August 4 at 10.10 am.