300 West Bengal workers still in Maharashtra, Kerala

KOLKATA: More than 300 migratory workers from Kolkata and its surrounding districts who have been under lockdown in Maharashtra and Kerala for the past 10 days have appealed to the chief minister to make arrangements to bring them back home. With the nation going for a lockdown for 21 days from midnight on Tuesday, these workers — mostly salesmen or labourers with no money or resources — are running from pillar to post so that they can return to Bengal.
“Every February we come to Karad in Pune and stay for two months. We collect the local food grain, called jowari, from godowns, hire vehicles and supply it to the villages. This year we came on February 8 — just when the Covid-19 was threat was starting and worked for few days. But everything started going wrong after that. The local administration asked us not to leave the house,” said Jayanta Bramhachari, one of the 150 salesman stuck in Karad.
“We appeal to the chief minister so that she can help get us out of this trouble,” said the resident of Bengal’s Ashokenagar.
“We stay 250km from Pune. The roads were closed so we couldn’t even go to Pune station. Initially we thought the lockdown would be for two weeks, but the situation is worse now and we don’t know how we will survive,” said Biswajit Chakraborty, a resident of south Kolkata.
More than 140 labourers from Sunderbans are on the verge of starvation in Kerala’s Cheriangapatii. They cannot communicate with the local administration since they only speak Bengali and Hindi.
Though the Kerala administration is yet to respond to the workers’ pleas, the Maharashtra local administration has assured all help. “Tell them to provide their names and numbers and I shall speak to the DM. The local administration will get in touch with them and make an arrangement for ration so they can survive for the next 21 days,” SP of Satara district Tejaswi Satpute told TOI.