The mortal remains of a migrant labourer, who died in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh on August 26, came home in Dighalkandi village of Nadia’s Murutia after 45 days on Saturday morning.
Family members of Chhiddique, 40, a labourer with a construction firm, could get back his body because of an IT professional from Birbhum.
Chhiddique’s colleague broke the news of the death to his kin and advised them to contact the administration to bring the body back home. But a pandemic-wary administration allegedly did not show much eagerness to help, alleged the bereaved family.
Birbhum resident and IT professional Sadekul Islam read about the plight of the migrant worker’s family in newspapers and took it upon himself to help get Chhiddique’s body back to India.
Sadekul, who works for an IT major in Calcutta, said: “I read a news item about the plight of the helpless family. I spoke to the local BDO to get the contact number of the family and decided to take up the matter with the authorities.”
He had facilitated in bringing back a body from abroad earlier as well, he said. “I followed the same process in Chhiddique’s case. It is simple and details are available on the MEA website, but it is not easy for migrant workers to access it. The alleged apathy of the administration was shocking and I decided to step in,” Sadekul told The Telegraph.
The IT professional said an online form on the MEA website has to be filled for the Indian embassy to start the process of transporting the mortal remains to India.
“If the deceased is an overseas employee, the employer bears the cargo cost. If the employer refuses, money from the Indian Community Welfare Fund is used,” an MEA official told The Telegraph.
Chhiddique’s body arrived at the Calcutta airport on Friday night and reached Dighalkandi, around 200km away, on Saturday morning. On the request of the family members, Sadekul attended the last rites.
Azad Khan, brother of the deceased and a taxi driver, said: “It would not have been possible to see the mortal remains of my brother had Sadekulda not stepped in. We are poor people with no idea of how these things work. We had approached the administration, panchayat authorities and Trinamul, but no one was eager because of the Covid scenario.”
BDO, Karimpur-II, Satyajit Kumar said that Krishnagar MP Mahua Moitra had advised them to get the body back through the Bande Bharat flight, but it did not work out.
Officials in the Nadia district administration claimed that the body could be brought back because of coordinated efforts of the administration and an “NGO” (read Sadekul).
