R. ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, MARCH 30
When the entire country is under lockdown in the fight against coronavirus, true to National Poet Bharathiyar’s “When there is no food for a single man we will wipe out the entire universe,” elderly couple living in a town opened their “Akshayapatra” in their native village so that no one goes to bed with empty stomach.
80-year-old R Sekkappan and his wife S Nagammai in Madurai hit the ground to home deliver about 840 bags of 10kg rice each to daily wagers in Okkur village in Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu, reports News18 quoting IANS.
“Okkur is my native village and most of the people there are daily wage earners. I thought of their plight as they will not be able to earn during the lockdown and in turn, would not be able to buy rice and other food items,” Sekkappan said.
Nagammai immediately agreed to his idea of distributing 10kg rice bags to each household in Okkur so that the poor can tide over their difficulties during the lockdown.
“I contacted a rice mill and they agreed to supply the rice in bags. It was Ponni rice with each kilo costing about Rs 45. We had bought about 8,400 kg,” Sekkappan owning a fuel outlet in Madurai said.
The next challenge was transporting the rice to the village as the transport is not permitted.
“I told the police about the rice donation and sought their permission. They readily gave the permission and reached the rice to Okkur village where after maintaining social distancing the bags were home delivered to 800 families having ration cards,” Sekkappan said.
According to him, elderly people are living alone without ration cards and about 40 rice bags were given to such people.
“In one-and-half days the distribution of rice bags got over. It gave us great satisfaction as we were actively involved,” Sekkappan told the news agency.
Sekkappan said his two sons and two daughters are living overseas. He had built temples at Okkur village.
