Rickshaw pullers heading from Delhi for home towns amid lockdown forced to turn back

Rickshaw pullers on their way to their respective hometowns because of lack of work in the the capital city following the nationwide lockdown were turned back by Police at the Akshardham flyover, here on Saturday.

"The police aren't allowing us to go any further, they say we'll be sent to our homes on a bus," one of the rickshaw pullers, Paanchu Mandal told ANI.

Mandal, whose hometown is in West Bengal planned to get there riding a rickshaw with others taking turns.

He added: "I was going to West Bengal. The police have asked us to turn back saying that we'll be sent on a bus. There are two of us, we would've taken turns to pull the rickshaw and reach West Bengal. It would've taken us seven days. We are not getting any work here, don't get passengers anymore."

Police stopped people in large numbers late Friday evening who tried to cross the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur. The people were walking towards their homes in different districts of Uttar Pradesh amid the nationwide lockdown.

Earlier on Thursday, scores of daily wage workers were seen heading to their hometowns in the nearby districts in Uttar Pradesh on foot.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

A total of 873 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported in India, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.