Bhopal: More than 40 workers with families reached Bhopal at 5.32 am on Thursday shoved in three four-wheelers.
The workers, who somehow managed to reach their homes, had to return as Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology asked them to join work.
Mahendra (name changed) was found sitting on the footpath with his seven-month-old girl and his wife searching in the sack for something to eat. No different was the situation of any other worker who reached Bhopal.
A woman, with her veil on, told Free Press that just a month ago she managed to get home with her 4-year-old son. They were stuck in Bhopal without any food or daily essentials and now her husband’s boss called him back to work, she said.
Hari (name changed), the 62-year-old worker sporting his ‘Gamchha’, said the lockdown left all the people in his community scared. It was for the first time that the whole nation was on hold, he said. This made him realize the virus was fatal, he added.
Hari said that he works at MANIT with his son and his son has a daughter too. He was scared for their lives amid corona. The virus might be fatal but if he would not work his family would die, said Hari.
Not one MANIT authority was spotted to get the workers and their families, who reached Bhopal from Adivasi area of Chhatarpur, tested for Covid-19, renting three vehicles for Rs 60,000.
There are more than 15 children in the group with a couple of new-born babies. Not one worker was tested by the MANIT authorities as they reached Bhopal.
When the lockdown was imposed and the institutions got shut down, the daily wage workers were rendered jobless. They had no money to buy food or get back home. The volunteers managed their safe departure to their homeland.
But now that the lockdown has been eased, the MANIT authorities have asked them back without any precaution.
The volunteers still working for the marginalized affected by corona pandemic found the group of labourers. A corona volunteer, Sunil Dubey, said when he asked them about their whereabouts they were scared even to talk.
He managed to take them to JP hospital and got the hospital authorities to collect their samples for corona testing.
Free Press tried to talk to the MANIT authorities but they did not respond to the calls.
