Tamil IAS officer helps 480 youths reach TN

Tamil IAS officer helps 480 youths reach TN

Shanmughasundaram.J@timesgroup.com

Chennai:10.05.2020

With the help of a Tamil IAS officer working in Maharashtra, 480 youths stranded in the state’s Sangli district are on their way back home to Tamil Nadu in 16 buses. They started their journey on Saturday. There are several others stranded in Maharashtra.

The youths, who hail from 17 districts in TN, were working as marketing executives. Chief executive officer of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) P Anbalagan, who is from Erode district, helped them.

“The officer reached out to us and asked us to be ready with our medical certificates and assured to arrange transportation to return home,” said M Illayaraj from Pudukkottai, who could not travel with the others as he was from a Covid-19 containment zone in Maharashtra. MIDC arranged funds from industries to arrange the transportation.

“All of these arrangements were made after getting the Tamil Nadu government’s consent. I also contacted the TN nodal officer for Maharashtra Pooja Kulkarani. She agreed to receive the group in Salem,” Anbalagan told TOI. The group would be dropped in Salem. One of the youths travelling in the bus said, “We hope the state arranges transport facilities for us to reach our natives from Salem.”

Meanwhile, 87 workers were brought from Palakkad in Kerala to Nagapattinam in Kerala State Transportation Corporation buses.