CHANDIGARH: Labourers from Punjab who had travelled to other states with their combines (adaptable machine to effectively harvest crops) to harvest wheat before the lockdown are now spending their earnings to buy cycles and motorcycles to return. Talking to this daily, Raj Singh Panch of Laut village in Patiala district said, “Some 210 workers from my village had gone to UP, Bihar, MP, Maharashtra and Karnataka and out of them, 170 have returned. While five of them came back on cycles, 15 others bought four second-hand bikes for Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 each in Maharashtra. Another 15 people hired taxis at Rs 7,000 per person.”
Forty-five-year-old Krishan Singh of the same village, who has stuck 200 kilometres away from Bhopal along with another villager, had to cycle back to Punjab. “We bought two old cycles at Rs 2,500 each and then started to paddle back. We had earned Rs 20,000 from harvesting and ended up spending Rs 10,000. We used to cycle about 100 kms on an average per day and it took us about 12 days to reach back home. After cycling the entire day, we use to sleep on the roadside. We could not always afford to buy food.”