BERHAMPUR: On Saturday noon, Chittaranjan Sethy called his mother over phone as the bus which was taking him home from Surat was moving along at a good speed. He sounded happy and was eager to meet his family. It was a matter of few hours before he would be back on his soil.“I would meet you after completing the 14-day quarantine period in the isolation centre at Buguda town,” he told her.Chittaranjan (45) was working in a spinning mill for the last 17 years in Surat where he was staying alone. His wife, two teenaged sons and three-year-old daughter used to live with his father-in-law at Baradipalli near Buguda town.
Last year, his daughter contracted an unidentified disease and Chittaranjan had to exhaust all his savings and take a hand loan of `3 lakh for her treatment but she could not be saved.A heart-broken Chhittaranjan stayed in the village for some time before leaving for Surat again with his two sons - aged 18 and 16 years - so that they could earn some additional to repay the loan.
On April 30, Chittaranjan along with his two sons boarded the bus. After lunch time on Saturday, he and his co-passenger Santosh Sethy started to talk about their lives. The coronavirus pandemic had left them without work as mills were shut and they were completely distressed without even two square meals a day, like thousands of other natives of Ganjam who live in the Gujarat city for livelihood. The two travellers thought it would be good to be back among loved ones though the coming days presented uncertainty.
For 35-year-old Santosh, it had been a challenging life. To survive through the scare of the pandemic was one trauma but another was livelihood since he happened to be the sole breadwinner of his family which included an eight-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son.
Both were seated at the front and engaged in a discussion about their future course of action after the lockdown and quarantine when the bus swerved to one side of the road along Kalinga Ghat after the driver lost control. The vehicle hit the side wall and under the impact, broken splinters from glass panes pierced the bodies of both Chittaranjan and Santosh. While Chittaranjan was thrown out of the bus and Santosh was pierced by a broken iron rod.
Firefighters and police reached the spot and rescued the passengers but both Chittaranjan and Santosh perished. It was a matter of few hours before they could set foot on their soil but it was not to be.
A pal of gloom descended on Buguda when their bodies reached for cremation on Sunday. Chittaranjan’s family could be taken care of by his sons but it is darkness ahead for the young children of Santosh.
Polasara MLA Srikant Sahu and others consoled the bereaved families and handed over `5,000 each to the two families. Sahu assured the grief-stricken families that he would place their miseries before the Government for financial assistance.
Concern over vehicles used to bring back migrants
As thousands of migrant workers from other states rush back home by buses, none seems to bother about the condition of the vehicle they are made to travel in, experience of drivers and other staff as they traverse over 1700 km from Surat to Ganjam. The back-to-back mishaps have raised such issues. The first mishap left two dead, while the others had a miraculous escape. Similarly another bus from Surat collided with a vehicle along Nagpur-Amravati NH resulting in injuries to five passengers who were treated at Karanja hospital in Amravati. With another 40 buses expected to reach the district within next few days, family members have expressed concern that vehicles used for transferring the migrant workers be checked properly for fitness and experience of drivers.