Lockdown: C'garh PwD missing from 2010 reunited with kin in MP

Barwani (MP), May 10 () The lockdown for the novelcoronavirus outbreak with its severe hardships for migrantlabourers also became the scene of a speech and hearingimpaired youngster from Chhattisgarh getting united with hisfather after a decade, thanks to the extra efforts taken by anofficial in Sendhwa in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani district.

When some 500 migrant labourers reached Sendhwa townafter walking several hundred kilometers from Maharashtra amidthe lockdown, the speech and hearing impaired man in his earlytwenties was unable to give any details about himself, saidInspector Vinod Kumar Yadav, in charge of the centre wherethese migrants were being screened.

"Since he was unable to communicate, I asked him towrite his name on a piece of paper. He wrote 'urave' which Ifound out was the surname of some people in Shahdol in MP andneighbouring Chhattisgarh. I then contacted an income taxofficer Yuvraj Thakur who circulated the youngster's image onWhatsApp groups in that state," he told on Sunday.

Yadav said he got a call from a Chhattisgarh policeconstable who claimed the youngster was a native of Syahimudivillage in that state's Korba district and had been missingsince 2010.

"Through a video call, the man's father Itwar Dasidentified him and told us his name was Laxmi Das. The man hadwalked off with a group of labourers as a child and wentmissing since as he was unable to communicate about his kinand native place," the official said.

Yadav said Itwar Das managed to obtain permission totravel to Sendhwa amid the lockdown and was united with hisson after all these years.

"They have gone back to Chhattisgarh and theirhappiness makes me feel all the effort to find out more aboutthe youngster was worth it," Yadav said. COR MASBNM BNM