Corona Warrior Ramalinga Reddy and his team.

R K Mattoo

While majority of the 1.3 billion people of India stayed indoors when the lockdown ONE was announced on March 24 by Prime Minister Modi, it was not applicable to those working in essential services including doctors, nurses, paramedics, police, pilots, railway workers and rubbish collectors who were supposed to brave grave odds every day. While medical staff are at the forefront of these efforts and even have to stay away from their families to see patients, at the same time many politicians stayed indoors and never turned up even in their constituencies.

Among a few politicians who led the warrior teams with dedication and sincerity is Sh. Ramalinga Reddy, former minister and MLA of BTM constituency. I have been following him up from the day one of lockdown till today, and I can confidently say that he is available 24X7 for people in his constituency for any help related to lockdown problems faced by people.

His phone was never switched off and my personal experience with him says that whenever I contacted him, he responded even to a message. He updated his movements everyday to people through whatsup messages.

Through public donations and his personal money, he kept the ration supply uninterrupted in his constituency through his battery of volunteers.

Always wearing a mask and observing all general guidelines and social distancing norms, he organized distribution of essentials to the needy in the most organized and acceptable way and led his teams in every area of his constituency.

I am a resident of Sanjaya Nagar and after making several futile pleas to my area MLA and Corporator. They did not pick up my phone leave alone rely my distress messages. After knowing his work, I finally approached Mr. Ramalinga Reddy for help for a displaced Kashmiri senior citizen living in Bangalore. He wanted to admit her wife in a hospital for treatment of Jaundice but none of the hospitals were ready to admit her for fear of Corona infection. When she turned serious and the senior citizen gave up hopes, I sent a message to Mr. Reddy and within hours he arranged her admission in Government Hospital Jayanagar. The Hospital Superindent and the doctors were so helpful that they received the patient at the gate and admitted her for treatment. They did not only treat her for the disease but carried out the mandatory Covid Test which fortunately was negative.

After initial treatment and a few days of admission, the doctors referred her to St. Johns Hospital where she got admitted for specialized treatment. She is fine today back home with her husband, thanks to the timely intervention of Mr. Reddy.

Not only this, whenever I approached him for ration supplies to genuine needy poor people in his area, Mr. Reddy collected the addresses over phone and immediately deputed his team members to their houses with ration bags and other essentials.

Today I hail people like Mr. Reddy as supply warrior for the services being provided by them. It is my duty to thank thanked these warriors for their work amid the coronavirus outbreak in the entire nation. These people are doing a commendable job despite the lockdown.

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The views expressed in the article above are R K Mattoo’s  personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright disclaimer under section 107 of the copyright act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy:

R K Mattoo – Editor Spade A Spade - An Official Publication of Kashmiri Hindu Cultural Welfare Trust, Bengaluru and Spade A Spade June 2020.