Like thousands of others, Tipu Yadav, a migrant labourer from Bihar, is also stuck in Delhi following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's declaration for a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, which continues to wreak havoc across the world.
On Monday, Yadav was seen crying after he learnt of his mother's death. Yadav implored the authorities to help him reach his village in Bihar's Bhagalpur.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Yadav said his mother had expired and he was stuck in the national capital due to the lockdown. "I am staying in Delhi for the past 12 years. My father and other family members stay in the village. I have been told that a vehicle will drop me to my village," he said.
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"I am a poor man. Please help me."
Prime Minister's lockdown announcement -- a necessary step to contain the spread of the coronavirus -- triggered another crisis as tens of thousands of construction workers and daily wage labourers swarmed Anand Vihar bus terminal to return home. When they failed to get the bus, many -- who hadn't eaten anything for an entire day or two -- embarked on their journey, hundreds of KM on foot.
On Saturday, four migrant workers from Gujarat were killed after a tempo hit them in Palghar while they were walking back to their villages -- about 600 km away.
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Three others received serious injuries in the incident on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in the wee hours of Saturday.
The same day, a 39-year-old man, who had walked almost 200 kilometres from Delhi to reach his home in Morena in Madhya Pradesh, collapsed and died in Agra.
The man, identified as Ranveer Singh, worked as a home delivery boy for a private restaurant in the national capital.
India has recorded 1,117 active COVID-19 positive cases as on Monday night. So far, 32 people have died of COVID-19.
(With inputs from ANI)
