Among thousands of migrants and daily-wage workers who were trying to get home amid this nationwide lockdown, a 38-year-old man who worked as a delivery guy, died while walking to get to his village. The deceased man, Ranveer Singh, worked as a delivery agent in Delhi and was on his way to his village in Madhya Pradesh. According to an NDTV report, he had walked over 200 km before dying of a heart attack.
Since all inter-state bus and passengers train services have been completely suspended, migrants and daily-wage workers had no option but to set on a journey on foot to get to their respective villages. Even though people were advised to stay where they are, landlords and employers asked them to leave, which left them with no option but to try to get home?on foot.
The report adds that?Ranveer Singh had started walking to his village in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district, which is roughly 326 km from Delhi. On his way, he collapsed on the highway and a local shopkeeper offered him tea and biscuits. However, unfortunately, Ranveer suffered a heart attack and passed away. He was about 80 km away from his destination.
On Saturday evening, the national capital witnessed thousands of migrant workers lining up to get a bus ride to Uttar Pradesh in order to get home and escape homelessness and starvation.?
While the nationwide lockdown is desperately required, the Central government has received a lot of flack for the way it was executed. When the one-day 'Junta Curfew' was announced, people were given a four-day preparation period. However, the lockdown was announced at 8 PM to be implemented starting midnight which gave people a four-hour window?which left millions in a state of panic.?
While people resorted to panic-buying, migrant workers were left completely stranded since they did not have any time to prepare for the same.
However, the government has nullified any allegations against it and has claimed that the lockdown was not implemented without proper planning. On Saturday, the Centre asked the state governments and UT administrations to use the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)?for providing food and shelter to migrant workers hit by the 21-day lockdown.