Kolkata: Around 1,200 Bengali tourists who had gone on a holiday to Uttarakhand are now stranded in Haridwar because of the nationwide lockdown. The Uttarakhand government has given them ration and the hotels where they have been put up have asked them to cook their own food. But the financial condition is getting bad to worse with every passing day and many of the tourists who are senior citizens have developed a psychological disorder. They have become jittery and have developed depression because of the uncertainty as to when the lockdown will be withdrawn. Most of the stranded people are staying in hotels along Bhola Giri Road. They cannot step outside the hotel since March 24 when the nationwide lockdown was imposed by the Centre. Sanchali Chatterjee Sen, a resident of Dakshineshwar who along with 11 others comprising his family and families of her friend is staying in a hotel on Bhola Giri Road. The group comprises of senior citizens who are suffering from heart problems and an elderly lady who suffers from respiratory distress is carrying with her a nebulizer to get relief in times of extreme emergency. She said the touring party reached Haridwar on March 19. They went to Mussoorie on March 21 where they heard about the ensuing countrywide lockdown. They returned to Haridwar and in sheer desperation, they booked air tickets for March 23 to return home. But by then the Uttarakhand government had closed the interstate border and finally, the nationwide lockdown was implemented from March 24. "We are passing the days with great anxiety and do not know what to do. We have elderly people in our team many of whom are heart patients and those suffering from respiratory distress. As the financial support is coming to an end we are going to face a major problem if the lockdown is extended beyond May 3. We will be unable to clear the hotel bills. The elderly people are developing a psychological problem," said a stranded tourist. The state government will start Sneher Parash to provide financial assistance worth Rs 1,000 for the stranded people from Monday.

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