NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JUNE 1
When corporate giants are resorting to salary cut and retrenchment causing untold agonies to their staffers, a small-time businessman from Singara Chennai paid back his partners in progress – workers – in a different way. This businessman has booked flight tickets for his guest workers from Uttar Pradesh to reach home on Monday.
Anxious to return home after being stuck here with no work due to COVID-19 lockdown, seven workers from Uttar Pradesh boarded a flight for the first time in their life and reached Varanasi on Monday, thanks to the humanitarian gesture of their employer.
Their employer is running packers and movers firm in the city. In a refreshing experience amid the heartbreaking scenes of fellow migrant workers undertaking arduous journeys by foot and cycles witnessed in various parts of the country in the recent days, the seven, in the age group of 23-37, took the IndiGo flight with their boss giving them a send-off.
“Our boss took good care of us as though we are his family members. He provided us atta, dhal and other essentials to help us cook our own food during the lockdown. He even disbursed us our salaries,” Sanjay Kumar, one of the workers, said soon after landing in Varanasi.
Sandeep Jain, running Jain Packers and Movers, a four-year-old startup, also sent home three other workers by train.
“They had worked for my success, so I find nothing wrong in spending some money to help them reach homes in this hour of crisis,” Jain said to a news agency, adding his workers travelled by flight for the first time in their life. All the seven, who took the flight, hailed from Prayagraj district and along with others were provided free rented accommodation and food by Jain.
Salaries were paid for two months during the lockdown period and the entire cost, including accommodation, food, and tickets, worked out to about Rs four lakh, he said. “With the lockdown totally restricting them indoors for over two months making them anxious about their family members, my workers expressed the desire to return home,” said Jain, whose parents along with him had migrated to Chennai from Rajasthan when he was a three-year-old.
Immediately he agreed and booked the flight tickets for 7 of his staff, through IndiGo Airlines on May 22. He personally saw them off at the airport here on Monday. “With no work here and coronavirus causing panic, they wanted to go home to be reunited with their families. And when the government opened up the aviation sector, I booked the flight tickets for them,” Jain added.
The workers have promised to return once the COVID-19 situation improves. After reaching Varanasi in the afternoon, they called up Jain and thanked him, Jain said.
