Agra, March 28, 2020: A 39-year-old man on March 28 died in Agra after walking for about 200 km while on his way to his village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
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Identified as Ranveer Singh, the father of three and resident of Badfra village in Morena district, was going on foot to his home. He worked as home delivery man for a private restaurant in the national capital.

According to police, the victim collapsed near Kailash mod of national highway-2, after which a local hardware store owner Sanjay Gupta rushed to the victim.

“He made the victim lie on a carpet and offered tea and biscuit. The victim complained about chest pain and also called his brother-in-law Arvind Singh over phone to share his health condition. At around 6:30pm, the victim succumbed and local police was informed,” said station house officer Arvind Kumar of Sikandra.

The office also said, “Ranveer left for his native village on Friday (March 27) morning on foot. It’s likely that exhaustion of 200-km walk might have triggered chest pain. However, before his death the victim had claimed that for certain distance he had taken a lift in goods carrying truck. On the entire NH-2 stretch, UP policemen were present with food packets and water for such persons, but Ranveer’s death is an unfortunate one.”

After the death, policemen took the victim’s body for post-mortem.

The victim’s younger brother Sonu Singh told The Times of India, “Ranveer was working in Delhi’s Tughlakabad for last three-years. He is survived by three children including two daughters. We are poor farmers, don’t know how his children would survive without their father’s earning.”

Sonu said his brother had told them that he had no source of earning because of the coronavirus scare. He was not able to get food. “Therefore he wanted to return home, but again there was no mode of public transport available,” he said while taking his brother’s mortal remains to their village.

Thousands of migrant workers are left without jobs, shelter or money in the national capital after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 21-day nationwide lockdown began on March 25.

Chaos, fear and uncertainty have spread across the country because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Thousands have crowded to bus terminals in Delhi trying desperately to return to hometowns and villages across the border in Uttar Pradesh.

The “total lockdown,” meant to halt the spread of a highly infectious novel coronavirus that transmits rapidly in crowded spaces, had suspended all interstate bus and railway services, leaving migrants and their young families no option but to walk hundreds of kilometers foot in searing heat.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments on March 28 arranged buses to ferry the people home. The Uttar Pradesh government said it had organized 1,000 buses and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said 200 buses would also be pressed into service.

Delhi Police officers, also wearing masks, were seen carrying batons and loudspeakers in their attempts to organize the people.

Sources: The Times of India, ndtv.com