Coronavirus lockdown: Stranded and running low on money, truckers in a bind

Yadav thought he would be stuck for a day. However, the following day Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended the lockdown in the state till March 27, and on March 24 Modi announced the restrictions would apply to the entire country till April 14.

“This truck is loaded with costly car parts. How can I go, leaving this truck unmanned?” he asks. “I did not get a parking lot. The owner of the truck told me to return home. I want to go home, but I decided not to go. Even if I decide to return home, then the big question is how? Also, I stayed back because of these costly parts.”

Yadav is subsisting on a diet of rotis, and one vegetable dish or dal. “I don’t know how many days the lockdown will continue. If April 14 is the last day, then I will somehow manage. But if it is extended, we [truckers] will be in a helpless situation. That will create dearth of money for me.”

Scores of other truck drivers are stranded along with Yadav. Pawan Lohar, 27, a resident of Neemuch district in MP’s Malwa region is stuck along with three associates. The truck he is driving, and another one started from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on March 14, loaded with air conditioners.

From there, the four drove to Neemuch, and then started for Kolkata. “My mother, father, wife, son, and daughter are back home in the village,” says 29-year-old Sundar Meghwal. “I am always thinking about them. They are also very much worried about me.”

The other two associates of Lohar and Meghwal are 50-year-old Shyamlal from Manasa town in Neemuch district, and 48-year-old Raju Malvi from Bararia.

Lohar says, “We prefer dal and roti. But the price of dal is increasing almost every day. We will manage till April 15. But, if the lockdown is extended, we don’t know what we will do.”

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