VIZIANAGARAM: In a heartwarming gesture, Vizianagaram district Superintendent of Police B Raja Kumari prepared lemon rice at home at midnight and served it to migrant workers, who were walking for days without food. The SP received a call from a woman around 11:45 pm on Friday. She told her that she and fellow workers were hungry and had nothing to eat for the past one-and-a-half days.
“The fact that some poor women did not have food for days disturbed me. I called up my officers. They offered to take bread. In lockdown times, getting bread is also difficult at that hour. I know bread cannot appease the hunger of people starving for one-and-a-half days. So, I prepared lemon rice,” Raja Kumari said. She got the lemon rice packed and personally took it to the quarantine centre at Lendi College. The women, who were surprised to see the SP personally bringing them food at 1:10 am, were in tears as they narrated their plight to Raja Kumari.
“We walked for three days from Gudur in Nellore district to Bodasingi in Vizianagaram. We didn’t get food,” a woman said.
They did not have money, even to think of buying food, let alone the non-av ailability. All the workers are natives of Vizianagaram and went to Nellore for work. “We did not have work for 50 days. We had spent the money we had. Now, we have nothing,” they said.
When they did not get food at Moduvalasa check-post in Vizianagaram, one of the migrant workers called up her relative in the village, who gave her the SP’s number.
After the migrant workers had food, the SP briefed them about the quarantine rules. She said that they will be sent home with a home quarantine stamp after undergoing tests. They will be allowed to move out only after 14 days, she added.