A 48-year-old migrant worker, who was trying to reach his native place at Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, died of cardiac arrest en route. The migrant worker identified as Boya Rangadu, along with his family had found work in Atchampeta of Guntur district two months ago. Post lockdown with farm work drying up, Boya and his family were trying to make their way back to Kurnool on the back of a truck.

Boya was already suffering from paralysis and other health ailments, and was undergoing treatment at the local government hospital. 

On Thursday, the migrant worker and his family boarded a truck with other migrants, from Atchampeta to their native place at Nallachelimal village, Devarakonda mandal. The vehicle was stopped by the police at the Ravulapuram check-post in Bollapalli mandal and all the migrant workers on the truck were detained.

The Atchampeta sub-inspector M Pattabhi Ramaiah told TNIE that the officials at Ranganna after noticing Boya’s health to be worsening, shifted him to the Guntur government general hospital. Doctors at the hospital declared that he had died due to cardiac arrest.

Police officials helped shift the body and took his family to their native for the deceased’s last rites.   

One of Boya’s relatives identified as Lakshmanna of Jilledubudagala village, told Deccan Chronicle that many families from Kurnool district had come to Guntur district to work in the agricultural fields but the work has dried up post lockdown. The worker appealed to the state government to help them reach their native villages in the state. 

The Additional Director General Ujala Tripathi and the Guntur Rural Superintendent of Police Ch Vijaya Rao, inspected the distribution of essentials to 200 migrant workers and their families at Achempeta.

On April 13, a 14-year-old migrant labourer from Bihar's Lakhisarai district, Mohammad Amair, had killed himself in Hyderabad's Uppal area as he could not travel back to his village due to the lockdown.