Madhya Pradesh: Hungry for 6 days, jobless labourer attempts suicide in Chhatarpur

BHOPAL: An unemployed man, allegedly hungry for six days, attempted suicide in Gadimalehara town of Chhatarpur district. To stop him from taking the ultimate step, villagers tied him to a tree and informed the police on Saturday.
Sitaram Ahirwar, 35, is a migrant labourer and a mason, who had returned from Delhi amidst the coronavirus exodus. But for the last few months, he hardly got any work. On Friday he attempted suicide, but the villagers saved him while he was about to end his life. When he resisted, they tied him to a tree.
Speaking about his woes, Sitaram said he did not have food for the past six days. “I don’t have a job for a long period ”, he said. He lives with his elderly parents and is fighting for survival for the last several months.
Brajendra Chachodia, SHO of Gadimalehara police station said, “The man was drunk. We counselled him and dropped him home”. He admitted that “the man is very poor”.
Denying the reports about lack of jobs and food for migrant labourers, Vinay Dwivedi, the sub divisional magistrate (SDM), of Naugaon said, "Enough jobs are available in the sub division and there is no shortage of food grains either. There must be some other reason behind the incident. I will find out the cause."
According to a government survey, after the reverse migration, more than 54,000 labourers had returned to Chhatarpur. Combined together with the number of labourers from Panna, Tikamgarh and Damoh, the maximum number of labourers had returned to Bundelkhand. In all, over 13 lakh migrants and their family members had returned to different districts of MP, the survey said .
But the state government was able to provide jobs to only 39,400 migrants after they returned from different parts of the country amidst the pandemic outbreak.