Despite home, ordeal continues for 1 lakh truckers of coronavirus-hit Nuh-Mewat

For Sahan Khan and one lakh other truck drivers like him hailing from Nuh-Mewat region of Haryana, coronavirus has turned out to be a 'curse', inflicting agony, hardships and unjustified social stigma.

Speaking about his ordeal, Khan, 35, says that he was in Bengaluru when the 21-day lockdown was imposed by the Centre.

"It all was a nightmare ... I was in Bengaluru when the lockdown was announced. Immediately about 100 of us who were in Bengaluru parked our trucks and crammed into one truck driving non-stop to Nuh," Khan told PTI over the phone from his village in Mewat in Haryana.

The Nuh-Mewat region is home to thousands of truck drivers and helpers whose livelihood depends on the transport sector. The region has emerged as hotspot for COVID-19.

As soon as Khan and thousands others reached their villages from different parts of the country, they were isolated in schools and government buildings for 14 days, he said.

"However, even after completing the isolation period, we are facing social stigma in villages as we are drivers and often being accused of bringing diseases with us," Khan narrated his plight, adding they and their families are passing days in acute poverty and facing pangs of hunger.

"I was employed for Rs 10,000 a month...this is the average salary we get but now we have nothing to eat ... we cannot go out ... we do not know what to do," he rues.

Echoing the plight, another driver Hanif said despite checkups they are facing 'social-stigma' and are also being accused of promoting 'Tablighi Jamat' activities.

Hanif said thousands of drivers from the Mewat region are also stranded at various places in the country and facing acute hardships including shortage of food and water.

All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) President Kultaran Singh Atwal warned that the supply crisis in Delhi and National Capital Region was going to deepen as drivers here mostly belong to Mewat region who are either confined in the region, a coronavirus hotspot, or stranded elsewhere.

"There are more than one lakh drivers from the Mewat region who are employed by transporters under AIMTC. A large number of them are trapped in the hotspot zone while others stranded at various places across the country are facing severe hardships," Atwal said.

He rued that despite claims of sanitisation and availability of food and water for stranded drivers, about three lakh are still stuck and no sanitisation facilities are available to them.

"The days are going to be extremely tough. Trucks have been abandoned at parkin