Dream holiday to J-K turns into nightmare for group of 14 from West Bengal

A 14-member group from West Bengal, on a trip to Jammu and Kashmir, has been stuck at a hotel here for over a month now due to the lockdown and are surviving on contributions from locals, police and NGOs after running out of money.

The group, comprising members of an extended family, including six women and four children, reached Jammu on its maiden trip to the Union territory on March 15 and were scheduled to return by train on March 30.

But hopes of a memorable holiday quickly turned into a nightmare when the central government put the country under lockdown on March 25 to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Resources exhausted, the group now desperately wants to be evacuated at the earliest.

"The announcement by the Centre to allow movement of stranded persons came as a big relief for us. We have been stranded here for a long time now and need to be evacuated to our homes without any further delay," Arijit Das (48), a resident of Nabapally Barasat in North 24 Parganas, told PTI here.

Das, a private tutor, said two days have passed since the government made the announcement but "we do not know how to get shifted from here to our home state".

He appreciated the residents of Jammu for their hospitality and philanthropic approach towards them. "They ensured that we stay alive!"