Kolkata: At around 6 pm on Sunday, January 9, OC Charu Market Police Station Inspector Mr. Subhash Adhikary received information that an elderly man was lying on Charu Avenue, apparently ill and unable to move. Sub-Inspector Mr. Pijush Kumar Bal and Constable Mr. Laxmi Ram Murmu of the police station reached the spot and discovered that the man was Ram Rao (75) of Surat, Gujarat. From his broken Hindi, it seemed as though he had traveled to Kolkata to visit the Gangasagar Mela.
An NGO was contacted and with the help of a test kit, the man was found to be COVID positive. This information having been conveyed to the relevant authorities, Pijush and a few personnel from the NGO now began doing the rounds of hospital after hospital, trying to get the man admitted somewhere. A nearby government hospital conducted yet another COVID test on him and declared him COVID negative, but he couldn’t be admitted there.
He was then removed to an isolation center near a private hospital on the EM Bypass but wasn’t admitted there either. From there, he was taken to yet another government hospital, where he was also not admitted. Finally, after much effort, Pijush and his companions managed to get him admitted to a government hospital after 3.30 am, where he is now undergoing treatment. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Our, Reporter in Chief
R. Manoj Kumar Sharma
Siliguri City, West Bengal
