A special train packed with victims of the Kerala floods from different States, including Odisha, crossed Berhampur on Tuesday afternoon.
The special train is on its way to Santragachhi in West Bengal from Ernakulam in Kerala. Several people from Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts, who were working in Kerala, got down at the Berhampur station. All passengers of the train had harrowing experiences to tell.
Most passengers were from West Bengal and northeastern States. They were migrant workers who had reached Kerala due to the lure of better wages. But except a few, most of them were returning back to their homes with the only pair of clothes they wore. Most of them also had very little money in their hands as they were not able to get any payment from their employers and had spent whatever they had during the few days they were stranded because of floods.
Employed as fishermen
The persons from Odisha’s Ganjam district who returned back from Kerala included fishermen like B.Mohan Rao of Katturu and B. Sri Ram of Bandara. According to them, over 1,000 people like them from Ganjam district were employed as fishermen of trawlers operating on Kerala coast. All of them are returning back in batches. Rao and Sri Ram had reached Kerala on August 1 and were being paid ₹500 per day. They were rescued by policemen from the sea coast and brought to Ernakulam to board the train.
Rina Behera from Gotangia in Kandhamal district along with her four-year-old-son was stranded in flood-hit Kerala during her trip to meet her brother Tofan Behera, who worked there as a construction worker. “I had gone to Kerala on a pleasure trip which turned into an unforgettable harrowing experience,” said Ms. Rina.
