By Dr Gopabandhu Dash
BHUBANESWAR: The countrywide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Coronavirus has crippled the livelihood of millions of people across the country. It has brought misery to the working class especially the migrants who were working far away from their homes. The poor and needy both in the urban and rural areas have been suffering due to the lockdown and are in dire need of help. Understanding their plight, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called upon everybody to show humane approach and lend a helping hand for the migrants and the needy who are returning to their native places.
With the Chief Minister’s call, Odisha Mo Parivar, the frontal social service initiative of the Biju Janata Dal took onto itself to serve the needy. For the first time ever in the country, a political party initiated an effort to serve the returning migrants who are stranded or are on the roads walking thousands of kilometers. Led by Convener Arup Patnaik, Odisha Mo Parivar opened a large number of migrant help centers in different districts. Starting from Motu in Malkangiri to Berhampur in Ganjam district and Lakhsmannath in Balasore to Bhadrak and Sundergarh, members of Odisha Mo Parivar served cooked food and dry ration to thousands of people. Wherever required, the migrants were given medical help and places were arranged for their rest.
Odisha Mo Parivar members have opened more than 15 help centers in the border areas where the number of migrants was large and provided ration to more than 25 thousand people. Buses were also arranged to send the migrants to their state borders in coordination with the local administration. According to Arjun Yadav, a migrant returning from Andhra Pradesh to Chattishgarh through Sohela in Bolangir district, the help we received in Odisha will be remembered for ever. We came more than 600 kilometers walking, in Odisha we were given food and ration in many places, here also Mo Parivar members gave us cooked food and dry ration that will help for some days. For Utpal Kumar Biswas, a native of West Bengal, who was returning through Lakhshmanath, the experience has been wonderful. “I will never return to the city from where I am returning by walking. The help and sympathy I got in Odisha will always be remembered. Here we were given food and shelter by the Odisha Mo Parivar people. I am thnkfuf to them. If I ever get a chance, I will prefer Odisha instead of any other state for work.” These are not the only stories from the migrants. Many have appreciated this work of Odisha Mo Parivar.
With major political parties not taking any steps to help the migrants, Biju Janata Dal and its social service initiative Odisha Mo Parivar have shown that they care for the needy. From the beginning of the shutdown, Naveen has emphasized for helping the most vulnerable people of the society. His humane approach has also helped the government to take a number of important steps to mitigate the problems of migrants and stranded people. Odisha Mo Parivar has just showed that the migrant guests are our brothers and sisters who need to be treated well.
(The Writer Dr Gopabandhu Dash is a Senior Retired Bureaucrat, former Political Secretary and present OSD to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik . The article is re-production of the same that publish in www.thenewsroom. co.in with the Writer’s permission).
