Odisha Labourer From Bengal Walks 300 Km To Return Home

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Jagatsinghpur: Desperate to get back home to Jagatsinghpur district during the lockdown, Benudhar Mallick, a 60-year-old migrant labourer, walked 300 km along the railway tracks from West Bengal.

Mallick was stranded in West Bengal without money to buy food and medicines after he lost his job as a daily wager in a jute mill in the neighbouring state.

Unlike Odisha, the West Bengal government did not provide free food to stranded migrant labourers, Mallick was quoted as saying by the New Indian Express.

Having no other option, he decided to return home with Pradip Swain, another Odia worker at the jute mill, on a bicycle. But the duo was sent back from the Balasore border after cycling for 150 km. Following this, Mallick and Swain decided to walk along the railway tracks and reached their respective villages after a week.

As a precaution, Mallick was sent to institutional quarantine for 14-days.

At present, there are 250 other labourers from his village who are stranded in different states.