ANGUL: With no work or money to sustain himself in the Capital City of Bhubaneswar amid the lockdown, a labourer walked for 170 km to reach his home in Angul district. He arrived at Pitri, 80 km away from his village, on Saturday night from where he was taken to the local police station by his father.
A resident of Badabagdari village, Raj Kishor Naik has been working at the Baramunda bus stand for the last few years. Son of a home guard Purnachandra Naik, the 33-year-old labourer was stranded in Bhubaneswar after the Government imposed lockdown. With no work, he found it difficult to arrange money to buy food and decided to return home. Although his family knew of his plight, they could do little to bring him back.
With no help coming forth and public transport suspended, he decided to walk down to his village - 250 km away from Baramunda - and started the arduous journey with some dry food on April 8. After covering a distance of 120 km, Naik reached Kamakhyanagar in Jajpur on Saturday where he received cooked food from some Good Samaritans.
“I walked for four days to reach Kamakhyanagar. Fortunately, some people helped me with cooked food and after having it, I started walking again and reached Pitri after covering 35 km. I called my family members but they asked me to stay there. My father then rode a motorcycle to Pitri to pick me up”, said Naik.
On Sunday, Naik along with his father reached the Pallahara police station where he reported himself. “Since I had come from an affected place, we decided to inform the police and administration about it first” said Naik.
Subsequently, the local administration sent him to a quarantine facility set up at Sairaimalia High School nearby. Sub-Collector Ajit Kumar Pradhan said Naik’s health condition is good and since he travelled from Bhubaneswar which has reported the maximum Coivd-19 positive cases, he was quarantined.