Bellary/ Chitradurga: It takes a lot of hard work to keep ‘Bharat Yatris’ fit.
Every evening, as Congress’s 3,570-km India pair trip ends for the night, a city of shipping containers, white tents and stern floodlights lit up in the middle, as if by magic. This, the organizers say, is a “logistics nightmare” to put together and then destroy this makeshift camp every day.
“There are 60 trucks with containers traveling with the group. The whole caravan is traveling together. We had just a month to do the recce and an advance team went ahead and identified 40 camp sites along the journey. There is still an advance team inspecting camp sites or selecting new ones as needed. These should be public places. We have encountered unexpected challenges along the way, for example, about three days ago, the weather struck us and the original camp was flooded. It takes 2.5 hours to dismantle it after the passengers depart in the morning and 5.5-6 hours to install it before the passengers return again, which is around 6.30-7 PM these days. Sometimes, it is a nightmare,” Dariaganj (Delhi) municipal councilor in charge of logistics, Yasmin Kidwai, tells ThePrint.
Access to the camp is strictly controlled and Security protocol has left many acolytes stranded outside hoping to catch a glimpse of Rahul Gandhi, The mobile city where Congress leader Gandhi and 150 of his fellow commuters and support staff stay for a night before leaving is a self-sufficient one, with a revolving kitchen, bunk-like railway coaches, a mobile clinic and a home. Laundry.
Traveling with the group on 60 container trucks through a trek of 3,570 km. Some of these containers are unloaded at the 11 a.m. breakpoint while others go straight from one night halt to the next. Every passenger, including Gandhi, is sleeping in containers at night – while they have a full container, the other passengers share the container. for The men, who are part of the journey, have 12 beds in a container while womenThere are four.
Kidwai said it helps that the actual distance traveled every day is only 20-25 km, so trucks get from one night halt to another in the shortest possible time.
Containers have a luxurious feel to them, toilets reminiscent of high-end hotels, even when the water runs out by noon. One of the passengers, who is leaving from Kanyakumari told The Print: “The leaders’ containers are really fantastic, but the containers we’re living in aren’t particularly so. It’s very basic – a container holds 12 men, thankfully. There are only four women in one.
The kitchen is run by the State Congress Committee of the state the journey is passing through. There is also a green truck following the group from Karnataka who is picking up all the garbage and water bottles left on the road by the commuters.
At the break point of the morning at 11 a.m. when the sun begins to harden, travelers are given pre-cut fruits and water for lunch.
“The food is managed by the local Pradesh Congress Committee,” said a senior Congress functionary. Apeksha Kakkar, an architect and a martial arts teacher, is running from Kanyakumari, “I am not a member of Congress, but I am walking because I believe in the ideology of Congress. I am seeing the country like nothing else, meeting people like I will never see. It has been an experience like never before. But I did not like the food of Kerala. They provide both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. I loved sambar but they tried to make North Indian dal roti for us which I did not like much. [During the] Tamil Nadu [leg]The food served was all vegetarian,” she said.
For Congress functionaries who provide support The work is complicated for the commuters due to the remoteness of the places.
“We have been in places where no one has network for three days. We have covered 4 kms for mobile network only so that we can finish our workSays an AICC office-bearer, requesting anonymity.
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Fully furnished in house laundry
For travelers that a bunk bed and often a suitcase are placed in some corner of the container, which holds most of their worldly belongings. They need to be in white color so clean clothes are a must. Access to in-house laundry is for India travelers only. They have access every three days.
Delhi-based lawyer Avani Bansal, who is part of the yatra, says: “Every two or three days the in-house laundry comes for the clothes, tags the clothes and writes the person’s name and number on a sheet. We come back in two or three days. If he doesn’t come, you wash your clothes in the toilet of the container in the evening.”
Kidwai says that laundry is largely done from a single container, which holds all the accessories for the purpose. “We are constantly on the lookout for washermen who can do laundry locally and give it back,” he said.
the former MP Meenakshi Natarajan, who is running Karnataka leg, says: “I am washing my clothes myself. It keeps drying up on the way. It doesn’t matter to me. I am a veteran of many travels and now I am used to living my life with a small bag. ,
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mobile medical van with pregnancy test kit and so on
a woman Congress worker of Chhattisgarh is one of only two India travelers who have required hospitalization in the 38 days the journey has been on the road. Dr Manohar M, who was driving the mobile medical van at the camp, says he had complained of uneasiness.
Santosh Lad Foundation, a Karnataka based NGOs working in the field of mobile medicine are responsible for providing the service for this leg of the journey. They have a supply of all the regularly used drugs such as anti-emetics, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic drugs. He also has a supply of emergency medicines like adrenaline and Lasix. But today is not what he needs.
He hands over the pregnancy test kit to Avni. sick congress worker Sits on her mattress and swallows lunch and is clearly in discomfort. “Please ask her to test,” he says, pointing to Avni. party worker, Mahila Congress worker She has just realized that she has missed her periods since the start of the journey.
The doctor says that this is definitely a unique situation for the team, but they are prepared for all contingencies. “Usually people come to us blisters and fever and sore throat. Sometimes, their blood pressure rises, but nothing is more complicated than that,” says Dr Manohar M. Services are at par with any clinic.
“This morning, I got my blood sugar and blood pressure tested. Like we take exams in Parliament, says Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretary in charge of communications and Rajya Sabha MP, He joins the yatra every five days a week.
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