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Rajasthan officials help pregnant woman, husband from Madhya Pradesh reach home

The couple had come to Jaipur nearly a year ago to work as construction workers. But with little money in hand to survive the coronavirus lockdown, they decided to leave for their home state on foot.

Rajasthan officials help pregnant woman, husband from Madhya Pradesh reach home

Migrant labourers with their family members board a van to go to a camp on their arrival from Rajasthan through a special train organised to bring back migrant labourers and pilgrims to their hometowns at the Dankuni Railway station after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, some 25 km north of Kolkata on May 5, 2020. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP)

The district administration officials in Rajasthan came to the rescue of a pregnant woman who, along with her husband, was walking home to Madhya Pradesh, some 800 kilometres from Jaipur, by arranging transport and food for her, officials said.

Deepak Kahar and his pregnant wife had set off on foot to home in Raipur in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh.

The couple had come to Jaipur nearly a year ago to work as construction workers. But with little money in hand to survive the coronavirus lockdown, they decided to leave for their home state on foot.

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“As soon as we received the information that a man with his pregnant wife were sitting in a shade at a petrol pump on the city outskirts and were walking down to their home, we made the food and transport arrangement for them,” Jaipur district collector Jogaram said.

He said the couple did not face any problem from their landlord for rent. But the husband was finding it difficult to pay the electricity bill and arrange treatment for the pregnant wife, so they decided to walk down home, Jogaram added.

“The couple was taken to Sanganer area from Hathoj where a bus was about to leave for migrant camp in Chhabra, near to Madhya Pradesh border. Officials of Baran district were informed and proper food arrangement was done so that they would reach their home safely,” he said.

Earlier this month, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had attacked the BJP government for not giving migrants stranded by the coronavirus lockdown a free train ride home despite “100 crores” being spent on an event in Gujarat during US President’s visit and Rs 151 crore contributed by the railways to the PM-Cares fund.

Calling it “disturbing”, the Congress president declared in a statement that her party would pay the train fare for migrants, the “backbone of our economy” and “the ambassadors of our nation’s growth”.

However,the Indian railways commenced its services from Tuesday morning almost 45 days after services were suspended on March 25 in the wake of the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Government is running 15 pairs of air-conditioned trains, for which bookings started from May 11 at 6 pm on the IRCTC website. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation had started taking bookings at 4 pm on Monday, but within minutes its website crashed due to heavy online traffic as passengers waiting for over a month-and-a-half immediately started logging into it.

Railways on Monday issued reservation to more than 54,000 passengers within three hours of commencement of booking.

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