The sudden exodus of panic-stricken North East people from Tamil Nadu has come as a surprise to the state which has a long standing reputation of being a haven of peace and home to non-natives.
The number of people fleeing the state in the backdrop ofexodus in cities like Bangalore and Pune following rumours about attacks onthem has now come down considerably.
But natives and officials are clueless as to how the statehas been perceived to be unsafe, that too when there had been no reports of anyattack on the North East community.
Though Chennai has been the preferred destination forworkers and students from North East, of late their presence is spreading toother districts as well with the state moving fast on the track ofindustrialisation with new infrastructure projects and industrial units inKancheepuram, Coimbatore and Tiruvallur districts.
People from the North Eastern states, ranging from studentsto workers in hotels and malls among others, have over the years got along verywell with the locals to the extent that some of them can even converse fluentlyin Tamil, considered hard to learn by non-natives.
As the North East people residing in Chennai followed thefootsteps of their state-mates in Bangalore, Chief Minister Jayalalithaastepped in and assured to ensure their safety.
"The state of Tamil Nadu has always been peaceful, andmy government will ensure that people from all parts of India living in TamilNadu do not face any difficulty. I would like to assure them that they need nothave any apprehension on this count," she had assured last week.
Police also swung into action and set up a control room andthree helplines exclusively for North East people. But no complaint has beenreceived by them so far, police said.
"We have received only enquiries on the helplines.There has not been any complaint or call informing about threats to people fromthe North East," Chennai Police Commissioner J K Tripathy said. .
Neighbouring Kancheepuram district, which encompassessuburbs of Chennai, also has a good number of people from the North East andpolice have initiated measures to instill confidence in them.
"There are over 2,000 workers from the North East inKancheepuram district. I have met them and told them not to believe any rumoursand asked them to contact me if they came across any rumour," KancheepuramSuperintendent of Police S Manoharan told PTI.
Kancheepuram is one of the districts which is undergoinglarge-scale industrialisation in the state lately.
Some students from the Northeast themselves are surprised bythe sudden exodus of their community people.
"I have always found Chennai very, very safe.Personally, I have not seen any threat here and I do not feel any need foranyone to leave Chennai and Tamil Nadu," Saniyo, hailing from Shillong inMeghalaya and now a post-graduate student in a management college inChengalpet, said.
Asked whether he has faced any change of attitude towardthem among the locals, he replied in the negative.
"Even yesterday I visited a place in Perambur...I didnot feel any change in the way they (the locals) see me. It was like any otherday. As I said, Chennai is different from other states and cities," hereasoned.
A senior railway official too said he was surprised to seesuch mass movement of people from Chennai on safety grounds.
"I presume they were leaving because of the violence inAssam, which have disturbed their families and they want to be by their familyduring this time," B Ilangovan, Deputy General Manager, Southern Railwayssaid.
