Image Courtesy:sakshi.com
After a migrant labourer Mahesh Jena’s trip of 1,700 km back home to Odisha from Maharashtra made the news, another labourer, a 45-year-old Jadav Gogoi made his way back home from Gujarat to Assam as he mostly walked over 2,800 kms over 25 days with Rs. 4,000 in his pocket.
Gogoi, originally from Gadharia village in Nagaon, Assam was working as a labourer in Gujarat’s Vapi. He started his journey home on March 27 and reached Raha in Nagaon district on Sunday, April 19, after hitchhiking and walking.
Media reports cited that he was robbed of his money and other valuables and survived by begging. He told the media that his last leg through Bihar was the most painful. He walked an entire stretch of 1,000 km upon reaching and reached Raha of Nagaon district where members of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) rescued him and got him admitted to the Bhogeswari Phukanani Civil Hospital in Nagaon.
“I started my journey on March 27. I sought help from the police and other government department authorities but they denied. I walked on foot from Bihar to reach here. I was forced to make this journey because of lockdown,” India Today reported Gogoi as saying. He also said that he dodged the police in various districts and hitchhiked on trucks often for a fee.
AJYCP local leader Dibyajit Hazarika told The New Indian Express they learnt about the man after he had called up his family from Ahatguri in Nagaon district by using someone’s phone.
“I am from the same village as him — Gadharia. When we learnt about his plight yesterday (Sunday), some of us, including actor Jitumoni Mahanta, went out in a vehicle in search of him. Finally at around 8 pm, we spotted him by the roadside near the toll gate at Raha. We took him to the Raha Police Station. Later, he was admitted to the hospital in Nagaon,” Hazarika said.
Dr. J Ahmed of the hospital Gogoi is admitted at said, “It is natural that he will be tired. As he arrived from outside the state, we will send his samples to a laboratory for a COVID-19 test. We will put him in 14 days’ quarantine at the hospital or at his home, even if his lab reports turn out to be negative.”
(Sources – Sentinel Assam, The New Indian Express, India Today, The Hindu)
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