Eleven famished migrant labours, on a 700km trek back home to villages in Murshidabad and Birbhum from Odisha’s Angul, fell ill in Kalyani on Wednesday, prompting local residents to rush to their rescue before police could figure out how to deal with the crisis.
A fruit seller and a petrol pump owner rushed to extend support with water, ORS and some dry food as the fatigued bodies began to collapse on the NH12 link road in Basantapur, on the outskirts of Kalyani town.
After persistent effort, a team of Haringhata police arrived at the spot and took them to Mohonpur police outpost, adjacent to the NH12, where they were served rice, dal, and egg curry after medical examination.
The police authorities are in touch with their counterparts in Murshidabad and Birbhum to decide whether to send them home or keep them quarantined in Nadia.
Dalim Seikh, a mason from Samsergunj in Murshidabad, said: “We have been walking for the past 11 days and ran out of energy. If we are quarantined, we will not mind because we will at least get something to eat every day.”
The labourers who worked in a building construction project at Badalpur in Angul had run out of money shortly after the lockdown was announced.
“After the lockdown was announced, the contractor stopped paying us. We tried to survive on meagre savings, and kept waiting to return home. After we ran out of options, we decided to hit the road,” said Mehdi Hasan, 29, of Rajgram village of Murarui in Birbhum.
Raju Mandal of Jangipur said: “We knew it is a long journey of more than 700km. But we began the journey on April 11 with some packets of biscuits, a water bottle, and some clothes. Every day we walked for about 16 hours. At times we were misled and had to walk extra miles. As we had little cash we could eat nothing but biscuits,” he added
“Nobody offered us food on the way. We got to eat rice today after 11 days,” Raju added.
The labourers said on Tuesday they were intercepted by East Burdwan police. However, instead of extending any help, the cops put them on a vehicle and dropped them at a deserted place on Delhi road near Dankuni on Tuesday afternoon.
“We began to walk again and reached Kalyani after crossing the Ishwargupta Bridge early on Wednesday. We slept for three hours and resumed journey in the morning. But, we could not drag our famished bodies beyond a few kilometres and began to collapse near the AIIMS building in Kalyani. Some local residents offered us food and water before informing the police,” Raju added.
“We have informed our family members that we have come close and not to worry about us,” he added.
However, the district administration is still undecided on their fate.
“According to official protocol these labourers should be quarantined. We have medically examined them and found no suspected symptom of Covid among them.
We are considering taking up the issue with the administration of the district. However, nothing has been finalised,” a senior police officer of Ranaghat police district said.
