After 16 migrants died after being mowed down by a train in Aurangabad Maharashtra, eight migrants were killed in a truck collision in Bhopal and six migrants walking home died after being hit by a roadways bus in Uttar Pradesh, another grim news of 24 migrants dying and several others being injured has been reported.
In an accident that took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya district, about 200 kms from the state’s capital, Lucknow, 24 migrants were killed and more than 30 were grievously injured when the trucks they were travelling in, collided at around 3 AM. The trailer truck, carrying around 50 migrants was coming from Rajasthan when it collided with a van coming from Delhi in Auraiya district’s Mihauli area, reports said. The migrants were headed to their villages in Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and West Bengal.
Auraiya’s district magistrate, Abhishek Singh told ANI, “The incident took place at around 3:30 AM. Most of them are from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.”
“Twenty-four people were brought dead, 22 have been admitted and 15 who were critically injured have been referred to Saifai PGI,” Archana Srivastava, Auraiya’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), said, according to ANI.
“Some people had got down from one of the trucks that stopped at a dhaba to have tea. That was when the collision happened and labourers who were sitting on the sacks were thrown off. We are still trying figure out why so many people were packed in those vehicles coming from Delhi and Rajasthan. Those injured have been admitted to hospitals,” senior police officer Jai Narayan Singh said.
Heartbreaking visuals of the incident showed police carrying out rescue operations, helping injured labourers with the support of locals.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took note of the accident and expressed his condolences to the families of the labourers who lost their lives. He also said that all injured must be provided with immediate medical care and directed the Commissioner and Inspector General of Police to visit the accident site and produce a report on the cause of the accident, said Awanish Awasthi, the additional chief secretary, Home Department.
Five die in Madhya Pradesh
In another accident, at least five workers were killed in a road accident near Banda of Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on Saturday, after the truck they were travelling in, overturned, ANI reported.
“They were going from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh,” Praveen Bhuria, Sagar’s additional superintendent of police, said, according to ANI.
As bodies of migrants continue to pile up, the Centre is still gathering its resources, going back and forth on orders deciding how migrants should safely reach their homes. The apathy towards the migrants that began during the first phase of the lockdown in March, continues even today, with even the Supreme Court of India shrugging off acknowledgement saying that the migrants walking back or arranging for their own means to go back home “don’t want to wait for their turn”.
Related:
Fourteen migrants die, 60 get injured in two road accidents
16 migrant workers run over by train in Aurangabad, Opposition demands answers
Death, harassment and apathy – there’s a long road before migrants go back home