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Workers in Tamil Nadu pool in money to buy bikes,

cycles to ride back home
TNN | May 1, 2020, 04.17 AM IST

CHENNAI: With the Centre relaxing norms and allowing guest workers to
travel inter-state by road, several workers in Sriperumbudur have pooled
in money to buy bicycles and two-wheelers to reach their homes.

Hundreds of guest workers in Sriperumbudur’s SIPCOT Industrial Estate

are looking to buy second-hand bicycles and motorbikes to commence
their journey. Gopal Singh, 27, who is from Bihar’s Kaimur district and six of
his roommates are exploring the option. "We are not going to wait
anymore, we have decided to go back home," said Singh.

SIPCOT, which falls under the Kancheepuram district, has 34,870 guest
workers from over 15 northern and eastern states. Of them, nearly, 6,000
workers live in Mambakkam, Ananeri, Pal Nallore and surrounding villages. "It’s been eight to 10 months since we shifted here.
Though we consider this as our second home, we want to be with our families now. My parents call me every day and ask me
to get home at any cost," said Singh, who saved Rs 1,500 to buy a cycle and pedal his way back home.

Singh’s friends Devilal Sigh, 27, Saroj Kumar, 23, Om Prakash, 24, Kameshwar Singh, 32, and six others had pooled in money
and managed to buy five second hand motorbikes. The group had left Sriperumbudur on April 22 but were stopped at
Vijayawada by officials and were moved a quarantine facility.

"We are determined to go from here," said Rajan Kumar Das, 24, from Bhubaneswar, Odisha. While the distance between
Sriperumbudur and Kaimur is 2,100km, one of the guest workers from West Bengal, Pradhan, said, "Distance is not an issue. I
plan to wait until May 3. If the lockdown is extended, I have other plans."

Pradhan did not say what his plans were, but enduring another lockdown was not one of them.