At least 14 migrant workers traveling to their native states have been killed in two separate accidents in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday and Thursday.
As per police officials, six migrant workers were killed and five were seriously injured on Wednesday night when a speeding State transport bus ran over them on the Delhi-Sharanpur highway near Muzaffarnagar. Four of the deceased were from Gopalganj while the other two were from Patna and Bhojpur.
“The bus was empty and the driver was under the influence of alcohol. He has been arrested,” said Abhishek Yadav, SSP, Muzaffarnagar. The deceased have been identified as Harek Singh 51, his son Vikas 22, Guddu 18, Vasudev 22, Harish 28, and Virendra 28.
In another horrifying incident, around eight migrant laborers were killed and over 40 injured after the truck they were traveling in collided with a bus in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. As per sources, the truck was carrying around 70 laborers from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh, when it collided head-on with a bus in Guna around 3 am on Thursday.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed grief over the Muzaffarnagar accident and tweeted “First train accident and now bus accident, why the lives of workers are so cheap? Can’t the poor of the country reach home via Vande Bharat Mission?”
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the Commissioner of Saharanpur zone to investigate the incident and has announced a compensation of ₹2 lakh to the family of the deceased and ₹50,000 to the family of the injured.
Earlier on 8th May, at least 16 migrant workers were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. As per sources, migrants who were walking to Bhusawal from Jalna along the rail tracks, however, they slept off on the tracks due to exhaustion.
