Former Karnataka minister places personal MUVs at disposal of corona warriors

MOODBIDRI: For a politician, whose primary business is public transport, ferrying people in a fleet of buses in a transport company that he is a partner in, spells bread and butter. But when he uses the same concept to transport frontline corona warriors to their workplace in his personal fleet of MUVs, it spells public service. And doing this quietly behind the scenes since lockdown 1.0 is former minister K Abhayachandra Jain, partner in Sugama Travels.
Jain, who had lent two of his MUVs for exclusive use by staff of community health centre and G V Pai Charitable Hospital in the Jain Kashi of south India for the entire duration of lockdown 1.0-5.0, did so again when Dakshina Kannada district administration announced the weeklong lockdown from July 16. This arrangement has come as a boon to the nurses, technicians and other staff of the hospitals who hitherto relied exclusively on public transport.
Having set aside a vehicle each for personal use at Moodbidri and in Bengaluru, Jain said these two MUVs were lying idle since lockdown. Recognising the need to ensure continuity of medical service in the two hospitals during the lockdown phase and with public transport not running to usual capacity since unlock 1.0, Jain told TOI these vehicles will be at the disposal of the hospital staff should the lockdown situation continue in DK.
Majority of the staff working in the hospitals come from Shirthady, Siddakatte, Venur, Sanoor, Kadandale and Yedapadavu. With service and express buses off road and even autorickshaws not available in the town, Jain said MUVs are filling the gap for them. The situation was accentuated with the town voluntarily deciding to close all business by noon to stop the spread of the pandemic, but these warriors needed to be at their workplace, he said.
Incidentally, Jain has also been in the forefront of helping migrant labourers who were stranded in the town during lockdown. They were taken care off by housing them at the Samaj Mandir for the better part of the lockdown until such time that Shramik Special trains and or buses started to transport these workers to their respective destinations. “This gesture with MUVs is a simple message to people that we are there from them,” Jain added.