The lockdown due to the COVID-19 started on 25th March in India and has been more than a month since then. Due to the lockdown, all kind of public transportation systems are shut down and there are no means to travel. With the lockdown, there are thousands of migrant workers who are stuck in different cities of India. We have already seen how thousands of migrants started walking to their native places soon after the lockdown. There are still many people who want to reach their homes and spend the rest of the lockdown with their loved ones. Well, the authorities are not allowing any kind of travel across India apart from essential services. A man from Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad came up with a brilliant idea to reach home during the lockdown. He spent Rs 3 lakhs in the process.
Prem Murti Pandey works at the Mumbai airport lives in Azad Nagar in Andheri East, which is a very congested and crowded place. Mr Pandey feared that the chances of getting infected with coronavirus in much higher in the congested area so he wanted to reach his native place in Uttar Pradesh. After the lockdown was extended earlier this month, he decided to reach home using any means.
On April 17, Pandey hired a small truck for Pimpalgoan near Nashik. It is located around 200 km away from Mumbai. He bought watermelons for Rs 10,000 and sent the truck back to Mumbai with the watermelons. The watermelons reached a buyer in Mumbai with who Pandey agreed on a deal.
Prem Murti Pandey then went to the Pimpalgoan market in Nashik to look for onions. After looking for good deals on the onions he bought 25,520 kg of them at Rs 9.10 per kg. He shelled out Rs 2.32 lakhs for the onions and hired a truck for Rs 77,00 for his native home in Allahabad.
On 20th April, he started the journey towards home, which is about 1,200 km away from Nashik. After staying on the road for two straight days, he straight went to the Mundera wholesale market located on the outskirts of Allahabad. After trying unsuccessfully to sell his onions, he went to his home and got the onions unloaded.
The TN Nagar Police Station in-charge Arvind Kumar got to know the matter after Pander came to the police station on Friday. A medical team has examined him and for now, he has been advised to stay under home quarantine.
Prem Murti Pandey had the money to invest and reach home using loopholes in the lockdown rules. However, there are thousands of such people stuck in different parts of the country. Many Indians are also stuck in a foreign country since the airports across India are shut till further notice. The current lockdown is expected to be lifted on 3rd May unless further orders are announced by the government.