Bihari students in TN desperate to return home

PATNA: The Tamil Nadu government's decision to shut all educational institutions and hostels apprehending students' unrest over the volatile Sri Lankan Tamil issue has put thousands of Bihari students studying there in a strange situation.

 

They are desperate to return home and are willing to board any train to north India. "We were asked to vacate the hostel latest by 5 pm on Sunday. When we reached the railway station, there was not a single train to Bihar and the station was jampacked by nervous and worried students," said Kusro Kumari, a student of BNKU Engineering College, Salem, while talking to TOI on phone. 

She said she and two of her friends returned to their hostel. "The hostel warden allowed us to stay but warned us that the institution would not be responsible for any untoward incident. We were told that we could stay in the hostel at our own risk," she said adding she did not know how to return home. There were rumours of hostels being burnt down by angry Tamil youths. These rumours have spread on campuses. Kusro and her two friends hail from Patna. "Half of my batch mates are Biharis," she said. 

Awnish Pandey, another third year engineering student studying in Salem, said that his college authorities had packed them into a bus and dropped at the railway station. "Here at the station, students are getting into any train available by purchasing general class tickets since no reservation is available," he said.

He pointed out that several students were taking trains to Delhi and even Bangalore so that they could get out of Tamil Nadu somehow. Pandey said though the TN government had closed the colleges and hostels for seven days, the college authorities had told them that the closure could prolong. The situation in most other parts of the state, including Chennai, is the same, he said. 

A large number of Bihari students study in various engineering and other technical institutions in Tamil Nadu. The debacle of LTTE in Sri Lanka has spread rumours that Tamilians were being forced to quit the country and this has led to a volatile situation, the students said. 

Even those students who are living in private lodges and rented rooms are feeling insecure as desperate parents want them back home and not go back until the situation becomes normal again.