22 mill workers sent back to Bihar, Jharkhand

Staff Reporter
Hindu, 27 September 2009

Coimbatore: Nineteen persons from Bihar and three from Jharkhand, who were working in a textile mill here, were sent back to their hometowns on Friday following a skirmish with workers who hailed from Tamil Nadu. The incident is said to have happened at their place of residence.

Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore Rural, N. Kannan, said a top government official in Bihar told him over the phone that mill workers from his State had been injured in a clash with fellow workers here.

Based on the information, the police checked all the textile mills in the district. The Madukkarai police found that 22 workers of a private textile mill at Athipalayam in Madukkarai wanted to go back home.

Inquiries revealed that these workers had quarrelled over watching the channels of their choice on television. The police said no worker was injured; there had been no violence but only a skirmish.

However, since these workers wanted to leave, the police put them on a train to their hometowns on Friday. No case was registered as the workers did not lodge a complaint.

PTI reports from Patna:

Earlier in the day, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had asked authorities to look into reports that around 20 youths from the State were assaulted in Coimbatore.

After coming to know about the incident, news of which appeared in a section of the press here, Mr. Kumar called Principal Secretary (Home) Amir Subhani and asked him to take it up with his Tamil Nadu counterpart, an official spokesman said.

Mr. Kumar also asked the Tamil Nadu government to protect the people from Bihar and take immediate steps to free the youths and arrange for their transport. According to the Chief Minister, the Bihar government would provide compensation to the victims, the spokesman said.