The Coimbatore Police have arrested five truck drivers for attempting to illegally take 250 migrant workers in container trucks to their native places in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, violating the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
Three trucks bearing Haryana registration numbers and two with Delhi registration have been seized.
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The workers were employed in Pollachi, Sulur, Palladam and Dharapuram and were out of work following the lockdown imposed a week ago. They were mostly working in the construction sector on daily wages. They had, through an agent, agreed to pay a specified amount for the transportation, a trade union source said.
All the workers have since been shifted to employee camps.
The police said that the trucks were stopped by a team from Singanallur station at A.G. Pudur around 2 a.m. on Tuesday during a routine vehicle check. Upon checking inside, Inspector M. Muneeswaran and Sub-Inspector Arjun Kumar found about the workers.
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While three trucks with 197 persons were bound for Rajasthan, two others bound for Madhya Pradesh had 53 person