Indo-Bangla border: Stranded truckers unable to send money back home

Over 70 truckers from various parts of India, stranded near the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal’s Nadia district due to the lockdown, are less worried about their present condition and more about their inability to send money back home.

The truckers, who were on their way to Bangladesh with heavy machinery, have been stranded at Chakdaha since the lockdown was imposed. The stranded truckers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Nagaland, alleged that the transporters have left them in the lurch and are not picking up their calls.

Local MLA Ratna Ghosh Kar has reached out to the stranded truckers and provided them with relief materials.

“I will speak to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the plight of the stranded truckers,” she said.

Kar has also given her contact number to the drivers and asked them to reach out to her for help.

Related news: 

Balraj Singh, a driver from Punjab, said the authorities of his children’s school are pressuring his family to pay the school fees while he is stranded far away in West Bengal and without any earning since the imposition of the lockdown.

“The transporters are not picking up our calls. The West Bengal government has arranged for our food but we are more worried of not being able to help our families in this hour of need,” he said.

Two other drivers from the northern state, Balbinder Singh and Sadhu Singh, said their families back home are also facing similar problems.

The Bangladesh-bound trucks move towards the Petrapole border crossing in North 24 Pargana’s through Nadia’s Chakdaha.

TMCs youth wing president in Chakdaha town, Sadhan Biswas said the truckers have been provided with food grains, potatoes, cooking oil, and detergent powder.

The truck drivers have expressed gratitude to the state government for assistance.

“I have informed my wife that we are doing fine with help from the West Bengal government,” a trucker said.