Bhubaneswar: Amid the lockdown, an autistic kid from Odisha’s Berhampur with severe food allergies was delivered camel milk and milk powder by Indian Railways through its Parcel Express service.
The Indian Railways transported camel milk from Falna in Rajasthan to Bhubaneswar for the kid. The milk was transported in two days by the Railways through its Parcel Express via Delhi and Howrah and delivered to the autistic kid’s family member at Bhubaneswar Railway station on Thursday evening.
The milk was sourced from Rajasthan with the help of Odisha cadre IPS officer Arun Bothra, who is now the CEO of CESU and MD of Odisha Road Transport Corpotation.
Bothra, who had helped a woman from Mumbai to get the camel milk for her child, also helped this time with his old connections back in home state Rajasthan for the dispatch of the camel milk.
One Chandan Kumar Acharya of Berhampur in Ganjam district needed camel milk for his three and a half years old autistic nephew. Acharya was getting consignment of camel milk from Rajasthan during normal time. However, he could not get milk due to the nationwide lockdown.
“My nephew does not take any other food except camel milk and pulses. However, it was difficult for us to get camel milk,” said Acharya.
Acharya first tweetted for help tagging the Ganjam district administration and Berhampur Police SP. Later, he tweetted to DM to Bothra, who forwarded the message to IRTS-Setu for the delivery of camel milk.
SETU is a voluntary initiative of IRTS Officers, with about 30 probationers and a handful of young officers.
One Kumar Ankit in Indian Railway initiative IRTS -Setu personally monitored the the whole transportation process.
“While the consignment was despatched on April 21, I received it on Thursday evening. I am really grateful to Bothra Sir and Ankit Sir for helping me,” said Acharya.
“The ongoing lockdown has disrupted the supply chains across the country. The objective is to facilitate movement of goods through Indian Railways’ parcel trains, from literally any station to any station,” said the Railways authorities said in a statement.
“The common man cannot navigate through the maze of modes and thousands of contact numbers to move his goods. SETU, a Unified Helpline and Twitter handle was set up to facilitate the movement of goods using all available modes of transport. All anyone had to do was just call and SETU will work out the movement,” it said.