As the complete lockdown with stringent restrictions begins from today, the state government has operated buses and has allowed the public to reach their native places in TN. Taking this opportunity, more than 70,000 persons left Chennai and went to their native places.
From the Chennai city, as many as 1331 government buses operated in the last 2 days of time and as of 6am on Sunday more than 65000 have left Chennai to their natives. This was mentioned by Mr. R.S. Raja Kanappan, minister for transport. It is learnt that nearly 5000 buses were operated across the city including Chennai city and around 6lakhs passengers used this.
Mr. Raja Kanappan on Sunday night made his presence felt at the Koyambedu bus terminus and inspected the operation of the buses. It was later brought out by an official that since the last buses were leaving at 11:45 pm in the night more than 7lakhs passengers would have utilized the buses in TN. It must not be forgotten that on 8th and 9th May, more than 2lakhs passengers left Chennai to their natives and this was when the buses were operated prior to the total lockdown from 10th of May. There were also some private buses that carried the passengers from Chennai to their natives.
The shocking piece of information is that social distancing was not followed when the passengers boarded and got down the buses. It is known that the passengers were allowed to travel by standing also in most of the buses. Inclusion of transport department employees in the frontline workers category was sought by the TN State Transport Corporations Employees Federations (AITUC) from the government. It has been brought to light that the federation has also requested the state government to ensure benefits to the transport workers just like those that are being provided to the frontline workers.