Sri Ram had emigrated to Tamil Nadu after his marriage.
Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh:
Uttar Pradesh migrant worker – forced to return to his hometown of Tamil Nadu with his family last month after his owner asked him to leave – had to sell his wife’s jewelry for 1,500 rupees at a market local Kannauj to buy food and medicine in the middle lack of means. The district administration has now stepped in to help after the local media highlighted his plight.
The family did not have a ration card or a work card under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) or the rural employment program. Both have been published now.
Sri Ram from the village of Fatehpur Jasoda in Kannauj, about 150 km from Lucknow, had emigrated to Tamil Nadu about three decades ago after his marriage.
He sold “kulfi” (a frozen dessert) in the southern city of Cuddalore, where he lived with his wife and nine children in a rented house. During the third week of May, the owner asked them to leave the house and return to their village.
It was only the beginning of their ordeal. The family boarded a train on May 19 and arrived in their village in UP two days later.
“We received 10 kg of rice and cereals each from the government when we returned. But we are a big family and we soon ran out of food. After that, my mother and two siblings fell ill. to find work but was unemployed again in two days, “said Raj Kumari, one of Sri Ram’s daughters.
“Finally, we had no choice but to sell jewelry that my mother was wearing. It helped us get food for a few days and medicine. We also checked the ration card but we were says new products aren’t being produced right now, “she said.
The district administration has taken note of their ordeal. “I sent a block development officer and a supply inspector to the village to investigate. After an investigation, we found that this family arrived in their village about two weeks ago and initially went to one of our transit camps. we gave them a ration kit for 15 days, “Rakesh Mishra, the Kannauj district magistrate, told reporters.
“They didn’t have a job card so we made one for them and we also made a ration card for them. Now they don’t have any problems,” added Misra.
More than 25 lakh migrant workers and their families have returned to Uttar Pradesh, according to official figures, since March after the government announced one of the strictest bans in the world to fight the pandemic.
Yogi Adityanath’s government has committed to providing free ration and work for every returning migrant worker and his family.
In a statement dated June 3, the state government said it provided free this month – 53 kg of rice and 1 kg of gram – to 53,840 migrant workers on ration ID cards. temporary.
However, many like Sri Ram are still suffering.
At the end of June, according to the government, 3 lakh 74,000 migrant workers and their families will receive ration cards.
Since March, according to the officials concerned, subsidized or free cereals have been distributed to migrant workers and their families on the basis of 11 lakh ration cards, which means that there were around 30 lakh beneficiaries.
