Polio-afflicted migrant sets off from Surat for UP on foot, rescued by cops

SURAT: Deprived of food and even the means to eke a living, 38-year-old migrant worker Mathura Prasad Bind was desperate to return home amid the uncompromising lockdown.
If that wasn’t all, an unrelenting landlord who kept knocking on his door every day, asking for rent and threatening to throw him out, only made things worse for the Bind, who earned his bread doing paint jobs. Finally, things came to a pass on Wednesday night when he and five room partners, started on foot from Surat to Prayagraj - an unimaginably arduous journey of 1,258 km in the heat even for an able-bodied person.
However, Bind’s footmarch was a more sordid tale. He is afflicted with polio and walked 14km in 10 hours to reach Kamrej from Ashwini Kumar Road. But cops on duty at Kamrej crossroads spotted him and came to his rescue even as his five colleagues marched much ahead.
“We have been jobless for over two months now and whatever savings we had were spent on food. I couldn’t keep pace with my friends as I have to rest frequently,” said Bind, who was taken to a shelter home and provided food.
“I know my physical limitations but what can I do? I am penniless and who will buy me a train ticket? asked Bind, who said that even food packets had stopped coming for the past 15 days.
“Large number of migrants are not waiting for proper transportation facilities and have started walking home,” said J B Vanaar, police inspector, Kamrej. Those walking are being taken to the shelter home set up in Kamrej.