Good Samaritan lends a helping hand to people suffering in Gulf

HYDERABAD: As he talks about the travails of T workers in the Gulf, tears roll down the eyes of Patkuri Basanth Reddy. “Their woes should end. Workers are going there with dreams in their eyes but returning as corpses,” Basanth, a main in his 40s, pointed out. For the last few years, he has been working selflessly and tirelessly to assist workers suffering in the Gulf.
Last month, Bolipalli Kranthi Kumar, a worker from the state, met with a road accident in Dubai. Kranthi Kumar was in coma in a hospital there. Basanth Reddy coordinated with the authorities there as well as the company where the victim worked and got him back to Hyderabad. This was possible only Venkat Rao after coordination with local authorities, including the state government and doctors at NIMS, the hospital where Kranthi Kumar was admitted later. Kranthi was flown in an Emirates flight from Abu Dhabi with six seats in the business class being removed to make space for him. A doctor and a nurse accompanied him. “He is out of danger now,” Basanth said.
Basanth Reddy himself worked in the Gulf once. “Several years ago, I had to travel from Hyderabad to Mumbai in a train with space just enough to stand on one leg,” he recalled. After his return, there is nothing that he does except rush to help anyone in need.
Recently, he met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to represent the case of four workers from Jagitial who were languishing in Iraq jails. Officials spoke to the Indian embassy in Iraq to render help so that the workers are released. “Agents trapping gullible workers have to be weeded out from every village. What is more important is giving employment opportunities to those who return to the city from the Gulf,” he said.