Pappan Gehlot sets example on how employees should be treated amid crisis

New Delhi : If you have a desire to help anyone, you can do it easily. A Delhi-based farmer sent 10 other farmers back home in Bihar via plane, bearing all their expenses.

Pappan Gehlot, a mushroom farmer, paid for their flight tickets because the migrant workers have toiled for him for the last 20 years.

“We tried to book trains tickets but were unable to do it. Then we thought these people have been working with us for over 20 years, their journey should be safe. So we got them medically examined and arranged flight tickets for them,” Pappu’s brother Niranjan Gehlot told news agency ANI.

The workers said their dream came true. “I had never thought I will get to sit in an aeroplane, our employer made the arrangements for us,” said one of the workers as he arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to board the 6 am flight to Patna on Thursday.

The farmers claimed that it is unbelievable for them to see themselves going back home in an airplane and not in a bicycle or bus amid lockdown.

“I never imagined in my life that I will be traveling in a plane. I don’t have words to express my happiness. But I am also little bit nervous about what I have to do when we reach the airport tomorrow,” Lakhinder Ram, who will be returning with his son, told news agency PTI.

He also mentioned that Gehlot was taking care of their food and stay since the lockdown was implemented in India on March 25.

Gehlot has a mushroom farm in Delhi’s Tigipur village. He bought the tickets worth Rs 68,000 and also gave each worker Rs 3,000 so they don’t face any problems when they reach their home state.

Gehlot mentioned that the farming season is between August and March. They wanted to go back to their village in April first week, but could not do so due to lockdown.