5 migrants killed, 11 injured, as truck overturns in MP
In a tragic incident, five migrant workers were killed as the truck carrying them overturned in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh. The accident, which left 11 others injured, occurred on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. The incident comes merely two days after over a dozen workers were run over by a train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district. Here are more details.
Workers were traveling from Hyderabad to Agra: Narsinghpur District Collector
The District Collector of Narsinghpur, Deepak Saxena, told ANI, "A total of 18 people were in the truck laden with mangoes. When the truck overturned near Patha village in Narsinghpur, five laborers died and 11 got injured." Saxena said that the workers were traveling from Hyderabad in Telangana to Uttar Pradesh's Agra in a mango-laden truck.
2 injured referred to Jabalpur; 2 others remain critical
Two injured persons have been referred to Jabalpur, Dr. Anita Agrawal, Civil Surgeon, told ANI. One of them sustained a head injury while the other had a mandible (lower jaw) fracture. Two other injured are critical while the rest remain stable. The injured and the dead were tested for COVID-19 as one of them has had a cough, cold, and fever for three days.
Recently, migrant workers were run over by train in Maharashtra
On Friday morning, migrant workers sleeping on the Aurangabad-Jalna railway line were killed in Maharashtra. Reportedly, the workers had fallen asleep on the tracks as they were exhausted walking from Maharashtra's Jalna to their homes in Bhusaval in Madhya Pradesh, over 150 km away. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 5 lakh for the kin of the deceased.
Migrant workers hit hard by coronavirus lockdown
Since the nationwide coronavirus lockdown came into effect on March 25, migrant workers across the country remain the hardest-hit. The workers, who travel to bigger cities for employment, were rendered jobless and many were evicted from their rented accommodations with no income. The workers thus wished to travel to their native places; a travel shutdown forced them to cover hundreds of kilometers on foot.
Government allowed migrants to travel after 40 days of lockdown
As states initially arranged buses for the workers to facilitate inter-state travel, there were reports of violation of lockdown guidelines. Hundreds of workers who continued to walk home died, many due to exhaustion or road accidents. It was only after around 40 days of the lockdown that the Centre allowed inter-state movement of migrant workers via buses and special trains.
Many migrant workers still choose to walk instead
Many migrant workers continue to walk home as they do not have the required documentation for government-facilitated travel or have not been informed about the same. Some workers are also being charged travel fare—sometimes thrice over— even as the government claimed the travel was free.
