Auto drivers, rly cops help coolie carry wife’s body to hometown

Nagpur: Around 250 autorickshaw drivers, six personnel from Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) have provided financial assistance of Rs5,100 to a 50-year-old coolie, who did not have a single penny to carry his wife’s body to his native place, Balaghat.
Sopan Uike’s wife Phulkali (40) was suffering from stomach cancer since the past few months. The couple shifted to the city a few years ago to earn a livelihood and raise their children. The duo used to carry luggage at railway station and had taken shelter on the railway station premises.

On Friday, Phulkali didn’t go to work as her health deteriorated. In the evening, Sopan found Phulkali unconscious and immediately informed other coolies and autorickshaw drivers, who rushed the woman to Mayo hospital. The doctors examined Phulkali and declared her brought dead.

Sopan’s entire world collapsed on hearing the tragic news as she was the backbone of his life, autorickshaw drivers told TOI.

Their drivers offered their condolences to Sopan, who was inconsolable, to deal with the situation. They somehow brought him back to the station after the doctors sent her body to the mortuary. That entire night, they thought about ways to collect money for the ambulance and other important stuff, said Altaaf Ansari, president of Railway Coolie and Auto Chalak Kalyankari Sanghatna.

“We approached RPF and GRP personnel to collect money. They collected Rs20 each or whatever was affordable to them before heading to the mortuary. After the autopsy, we arranged the ambulance and the body was taken to Balaghat,” Ansari told TOI. He added that if Sopan had told them about her disease, they would have arranged for treatment cost and she would have been alive.

RPF PSI KN Rai told TOI, “Ansari approached us and narrated the situation. That time, there were only six of us at the station. I told him to wait for a while so that he could collect more amount from other cops. But Ansari claimed that he had no time as they needed to send the body at the earliest.”

Sopan said he lost all the contact numbers as his mobile phone fell into the water. He didn’t even note down the numbers in a diary. Sopan, while expressing grief over his loss, thanked Ansari for the support.

Jyoti Satija, senior divisional security commissioner of RPF (Western railway), said the autorickshaw drivers’ union has done a great service to humanity.