“How will we earn? How will we eat? How will we pay rent?”: How fear and panic sparked by @narendramodi’s poorly planned 21-day lockdown propelled Mahesh Jena, 20, to cycle 1,700 km in 7 days, from Sangli in Maharashtra to Bhanra in Odisha, without a phone or map. @htTweets 
27 Oriya fishermen pitch in Rs 7,000 each to buy a boat for Rs 1.73 lakh, to get back home. Will they ever return to Chennai where they earned Rs 40,000 a month: “Never. Life is more precious than money.” Another feather in @PMOIndia planning. #COVID
m.telegraphindia.com/india/migrant-…
m.telegraphindia.com/india/migrant-…
“Kab lene aayenge? Hum mar jayein uske baad? Ek mahine se toh kisi ne haal bhi nahi poocha’ (When will they come to fetch us? After we die? No one has enquired our plight for a month)”: six UP migrants cycling from Surat unite @narendramodi and @myogiadityanath. @IndianExpress
Five bone-chilling stories, all from today’s @IndianExpress, that pay a 21-gun salute to the impeccable planning behind the decision to impose a 21-day lockdown with 4 hours’ notice. That it took 38 days for special trains to carry the migrants back suggests the end isn’t near.
How many feet are you willing to carry your aunt? Vishwanath Shinde, 45, a road construction worker, is carrying his blind and disabled aunt Vachelabai Nahi, 70, to their village, 456 km away from New Bombay: “Everyone is dead in my aunt’s family. She is alone.” @mid_day
“Will die but never leave my home state. The kind of torture I faced just can’t be erased from my memories”: Harivansh Chaudhury, 32, had all of Rs 240 in his pocket when he was told to go home after the lockdown was announced. He walked 1,800 km on railway tracks over 27 days.
The bad news is Prateek Kumar had to shell out Rs 655 of the Rs 800 he had left with him to help a needy government. The good news is he can expect Rs 15,00,655 to be deposited in his Jan-Dhan account when India becomes a $5 trillion economy in two years. @PMOIndia @timesofindia
The real “2G” scam is of “Good Governance”: @BangaloreMirror concludes that even after 40+ days of lockdown it looks like the government has no plan B. And, while Surat seethes, @vijayrupanibjp tells @HindustanTimes all migrants will be sent back in “10-15 days”.
“Zyada se zyada kya hoga? Mar hi jaunga na chalte chalte.... We labourers mean nothing to the government. Otherwise, we would have been showered with flower petals”: excellent work by the Bombay tabloid @mid_day in chronicling the continuing horror.
“No money for tickets, no money for food”: Remember this Gujarati @mid_day picture when you sit down to eat—a boy carrying a pressure cooker on his head, alongside his parents and siblings, for the long march home from Bombay. Where will they be pitching tent to eat tonight?
It is stupid to ask what was the planning before the lockdown was announced. But spare a thought for Mohammed Zubair, a polio-stricken 28-year-old, who pedalled 862 km with one hand for two weeks—from Delhi to Bihar—on his tricycle. @narendramodi @PMOIndia
indianexpress.com/article/india/…
indianexpress.com/article/india/…
What’s the most you can do for your son if he has to have an urgent operation? Bapan Bhattacharya, a 30-year-old mason, borrowed a bicycle from a wellwisher in Chennai and pedalled 1,600 km to Haldia over 10 days. @ttindia
