After the panic exodus, it’s now time for the North-East migrants to return to the City. Officials with the South Western Railway (SWR), said North-Easterners who left in the past few days were trickling back into the City.
A senior official of SWR told Deccan Herald that one of the special trains from SWR returned to the City at 7.35 pm on Tuesday, and there were 15-20 passengers in each of the 16 coaches.
However, another SWR special train of 20 coaches, which arrived at 12 noon, had no passengers. SWR officials said the regular train number 12510 (Guwahati-Bangalore Express) will arrive at the Bangalore City railway station at 11.50 pm on Wednesday.
The special trains from Guwahati to Bangalore, arranged by the Northeast Frontier Railway, are expected to arrive in Bangalore on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
Three special trains left Guwahati for Bangalore on Monday, carrying passengers on their way back to the City.
Colleges in the City are confident that the semester exams will be conducted as scheduled, with tension subsiding. The degree exams are scheduled to begin on August 27. Sister M Juanita, principal of Mount Carmel College, said the exams would be conducted as scheduled next week and they were expecting all students who had gone home to be back by Sunday.
“As we cannot expect everyone to be able to get tickets for their journey in such a short time, we have kept it a bit flexible. For those who cannot return by next week, we will conduct re-examination,” she said. The college had even made arrangements for students to stay on the campus. But, hardly five students made use of the facility. A majority of them have gone home, the principal said.
Secretary for Higher Education Siddaiah said there would not be any need for rescheduling the exams.
Despite the situation easing, colleges have been requested to provide accommodation to students for the next one week as a precautionary measure, he said.
Siddaiah said he had spoken to the Sikkim education officials and the Gangtok Mayor and assured them that the City was safe for students to return.
Peace meeting
City Police Commissioner Jyothiprakash Mirji, MLAs Roshan Baig and N A Harris held an Id Milap session with the North-East community on Tuesday.
Allaying the fears of the panic-stricken North Easterners, Mirji said peace committees and mohalla committees would be constituted to hold regular interactions between the two communities.
Meanwhile, Muslim leaders have asked the North East community to convey to people in their states that Bangalore was now safe and all security arrangements were in place.