E-Paper
Greater Noida officials help UP man working in Jammu attend father’s funeral amid lockdown
GREATER NOIDA:
GREATER NOIDA:
Amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to mitigate the Covid-19 spread, senior officials of the Greater Noida authority and the district police have helped a teacher working in Jammu, who is a native of Uttar Pradesh, to perform last rites of his father in his hometown Lakhimpur Khiri.
Distressed Hindi teacher Ashish Kumar working with Kendriya Vidyalaya in Jammu sought help after he came to know that his father passed away in Lakhimpur Khiri.
“We received a call on April 18 at 7pm from the teacher from Jammu. Being the eldest son, he wanted to perform the last rites of his father and reach on time. We immediately took steps to help him,” said Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer of Greater Noida authority.
The Uttar Pradesh government had on March 28 appointed Bhooshan as nodal officer to look after operations to take care of people from the state who got stuck in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh due to the nationwide lockdown. He has set up a call centre in Greater Noida authority office to handle calls from these states.
Bhooshan called principal secretary for home (Jammu and Kashmir) Shaleen Kabra and asked for arranging a cab and lockdown pass. After getting instructions from Kabra, senior Jammu officials helped arrange a cab and pass at 8pm on April 18.
“We spoke to officials of Jammu and ensured he not only gets a taxi but also a pass for the journey. The control room officials were given contact details of the person to ensure that he travels smoothly,” said Alok Singh, police commissioner of Gautam Budh Nagar.
Kumar started his journey at 9pm with a driver named Narendra Singh. They travelled through Punjab and Haryana to reach UP’s Lakhimpur Khiri at 9.30am on April 19.
The teacher travelled 990 km to perform his father’s last rites. After reaching his hometown, Kumar could not hold back his emotions and broke down while thanking officials. “Initially I thought I will not be able to perform last rites of my father due to lockdown. However, UP government officials made this possible,” said the teacher.
“These two persons were only ones who travelled while following lockdown norms,” said Bhooshan.
The team at Greater Noida call centre kept calling Kumar every two hours to ensure safe journey during this time of crisis, the officials said, adding that there are at least 50 people from UP in Ladakh, 500 in Jammu and Kashmir and thousands in Delhi who got stuck due to the lockdown.
“We are counselling them to stay safe at their respective locations. In emergency cases such as death of a relative, we help them to get a pass for their journey back home,” said Bhooshan.
