Workers walk for five days to reach home amidst nationwide lockdown

Youths from Jumla and Kalikot districts who had reached Pyuthan for manual labour before the nationwide lockdown have returned Jumla following a five-day walk.

They said they had no option to walking for days to get back to home after they were put out of work due to lockdown in the wake of coronavirus.

They arrived in Jumla via Rukum and Jajarkot districts. Among them, Harka Tiruwa shared that they had to survive on noodles, biscuits and water along the way from Pyuthan to Jumla. They were 13 people: four from Jumla and nine from Kalikot in the group.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Lal Bahadur Dhami, the youths have been sent in 14-day quarantine after health checkup.

Meanwhile, nine workers from Bardiya district hired for the construction of a cemented bridge to connect Jumla with Kalikot have been left stranded due to lockdown. The construction works have been already ceased, but workers are staying near the construction site.

Tila rural municipality has provided 90 kilos of rice, 30 kilos of pulse, 35 kilos of potatoes, 15 packets of salt and two cartons of edible oil for the immediate use. They earlier requested the locals to help them get back to home, but rural municipality vice chair Bishnu Budha said it was not possible right now to send them home, pledging all sorts of necessary help for them during the crisis.