Kasaragod: Undocumented expat worker returns from Bahrain after 38 years

[email protected] (CD Network)
January 10, 2016

Kasaragod, Jan 10: Nearly four decades after he left Kasaragod and landed in Gulf, he could not return home till last week. 54-year-old Alambadu Balakrishnan who spent 38 years in Bahrain as an undocumented migrant worker returned home last Saturday under a six-month public amnesty for undocumented workers in Bahrain that ended on December 31, 2015.

balakrishnaBalakrishnan, who has been doing mundane jobs, did not go home even once as he was stuck without a passport and suffered from depression following the death of his mother and brother in the past.

Alambadu Balakrishnan, who hails from Kanjangadu, Madikkai in Kasargod, Kerala, was brought to Bahrain by his elder brother Kannan, who later fell sick due to cancer and returned home for treatment. His younger brother Kelu, too was in Bahrain, but he lost his job, leaving the responsibility of repatriating him to Balakrishnan.

“He used to send money to his mother till her death three years ago. When his friends visited Kerala, he used to send blankets and other gifts for his mother. He spoke for about one hour when his mother died and after three hours, he got another phone call informing about the death of his elder brother,” a Malayalam language has reported.

Balakrishnan’s ambition on returning home is to build a house and if anyone is ready to be his life partner at this age, he wishes to get married.

Over 42,000 expatriate workers in Bahrain benefited from the six-month general amnesty for workers staying in Bahrain illegally, the CEO of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority Ausamah Abdullah Al Absi has said. Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis were the most beneficiaries of the amnesty.

Comments

Mohan
 - 
Sunday, 10 Jan 2016

we should blame our country for this injustice act,

jeevan
 - 
Sunday, 10 Jan 2016

lucky man finally get to his country

Mehaboob khan
 - 
Sunday, 10 Jan 2016

we should be thankful to saudi govt.

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News Network
March 31,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 31: Venkara Raghava, a software engineer from Bengaluru, who was infected with the coronavirus has recovered and is currently "doing perfectly well".

"I am doing perfectly well now. I had travelled to Los Angeles via Heathrow airport and that is when I came in contact with many travellers. I might have picked up the infection there," Raghava told news agency.

It was in Los Angeles when he started getting a 'low-grade fever' which led him to prepone his flight to Bengaluru. "When I landed back in Bengaluru on March 8, I had a fever and I isolated myself. The same day I went to a hospital where my travel history was taken and I tested positive for COVID-19", he said.

The next day, he was admitted to the isolation centre. His entire family was also tested but the results came back negative.

When asked about what does suffering from COVID-19 feel like, he responded that it was a like a regular viral fever and was "nothing to be scared of". "The fever is very grinding, and since my childhood, I never had a fever. I had a fever for almost 15 days consistently 100 degrees (F)," he said.

About his experience at the isolation centre, he said that it was an experience unlike that of a hospital. "At the isolation centre, one has to take care of themselves, unlike a hospital where doctors and nurses take care of the patient. I had to put a wet cloth on myself and you cannot overdose yourself with Calpol or Paracetamol," he said.

For him, "The tough times are now over" and now he has fully recovered but in the process, he ended up losing about five kilograms. "After the fifteenth day when I woke up with no fever, they took a test for the nose and the throat and it came back negative," he recalled, and on March 22, he was set free.

For one week, he has been in self-quarantine at home "being completely watchful" that the symptoms do not reoccur.

The number of total coronavirus cases reached 1,251 on Monday. There are 1117 active cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 29,2020

Mangaluru, June 29: As many as 32 fresh covid positive cases were reported in Dakshina Kannada today. In Udupi 18 new positive cases were reported. 

In Dakshina Kannada out of the 32 positive cases, one had returned from another state. Ten persons had contracted the disease from patient number 9590, 10274, 10275, 9739, 9589, 12384 and 10582.

Nine persons are suffering from influenza-like illness (ILI), and Six others are suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection. The health officials are tracing the contacts of five others.

In Udupi, out of 18 positive cases, 5 had travelled from Maharashtra, four had travelled from Bangaluru and nine others had contracted the virus from the COVID Positive patients.

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News Network
March 12,2020

Hassan, Mar 13: In what could have been a major tragedy, an under construction flyover across Hassan-Mangaluru railway level crossing, near the new KSRTC Bus stand here collapsed today.

Fortunately no casualties occurred despite six concrete beems of 50 feet height, collapsed and broke into pieces.

The much awaited project was completely neglected by the successive governments for over a decade due to politics.  It was sanctioned eight months ago.

The Rs 42 crore project was taken up by a joint venture between state, center and South Eastern railway. The contractor or the Engineer were not present when the incident occurred.

Blaming the contractor, the locals alleged that poor quality of work led to the incident. No contractor or engineer was present even during construction, they added. Siddaiah, who runs an eatery near KSRTC bus stand said that it could have been a major tragedy if people were underneath the flyover when it crashed. The incident should be probe and the contractor should be punished, he added.

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