People are dying on the streets: Raghav Juyal appeals for help for collapsing Uttarakhand

Dancer and actor Raghav Juyal is thankful for Bollywood celebrities such as Varun Dhawan, Remo Dsouza and Vicky Kaushal for amplifying his SOS call for Uttarakhand amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

“Agar hum ek aadmi ko bacha paa rahe hain, toh ek ko kho rahe hai. We don’t know what to do, and where to go,” says dancer-actor Raghav Juyal, urging people to extend help for the state of Uttarakhand, which is crumbling with the surge in Covid-19 cases, and inadequate facilities to deal with the crisis.

Dancer and actor Raghav Juyal contracted coronavirus in April, and tested negative earlier this week.

“The situation here is very bad. Bahut bura haal ho gaya hai. We’re running short of everything — oxygen, hospital beds and ICUs. I don’t know why it’s not in the news, and why people aren’t talking about it,” rues Juyal, who has been out in the field in Dehradun trying to help people.

“Yahan sab kuch collapse ho chuka hai, log bahar street pe dum todd rahe hain,” he bemoans.

According to Juyal, 29, the past four days have been incredibly intense, where once they got 30 calls for a ventilator, and could only arrange one. He reveals that out of the other 29 patients, they got to know that 10 died.

This state of helplessness pushed him to send out an SOS call for the state through a video on Instagram, which was shared by his colleagues in Bollywood, including actors Varun Dhawan, Vicky Kaushal and filmmaker Remo D’souza .

“I don’t have any funding, or an organisation through which I can take care of a task of this magnitude. I’ve exhausted my resources, aur ab mere paas kuch bacha nahi hai. That’s the reason I shared the plea to help,” he tells us.

And the support he received ever since he posted that video, has been overwhelming. “Vicky aur Varun bhai ka phone aaya, and they expressed shock that they didn’t know the magnitude of the situation here. In fact, Sonu (Sood) bhai also called and assured me of help,” reveals Juyal, who tested negative for Covid-19 earlier this week.

Now, he just wants to urge people to get together and extend help for his state. “We can’t put everything under the carpet. We need to come out and ask for help. Help maangne se hum chote nahi ho jayenge. We want help in any form,” he asserts.

Here, Juyal insists that he doesn’t want to indulge in any blame game, or highlight inefficiency on anyone’s part. “Hum ek saath honge toh aa jayege iss crisis se bahar,” he ends on hopeful note.