At least 30 migrant workers were killed yesterday in road accidents as they tried to return to their home villages during a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, officials said.
The accidents, in central and northern India, were the latest involving some of the millions of labourers left stranded and jobless by the seven-week shutdown.
Scores have died in road and rail accidents and even from exhaustion walking home.
In the most deadly incident, a truck carrying about 40 labourers struck another vehicle also carrying workers and their families that was parked at a roadside cafe in Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh, local magistrate Abishek Singh said.
At least 25 were killed and 30 injured.
It is thought the driver of the truck had fallen asleep, Singh said.
The vehicle was carrying lime powder which suffocated many of those who died, all of whom were men, he added.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath suspended two border police officials and also asked the authorities to issue strict warnings to the lawbreakers within their jurisdiction.
The chief minister sought an explanation from senior police officials from Agra and Mathura about the horrific accident.
He ordered them to sue the truck owners and drivers responsible for the accident, besides, impounding their vehicles.
He said that already 200 buses have been deployed in each of the border districts to help migrants reach home.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “extremely tragic” in a Twitter post and said relief work was in “full swing” at the scene.
A drunk driver was blamed for the second accident, in Madhya Pradesh, when a truck bringing labourers back from neighbouring Maharashtra overturned, local official Shashi Mishra said.
Four of the five dead were women and 17 people were injured, he added.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said travelling in trucks was dangerous and urged state governments to give permission to run Shramik Special trains to avoid such accidents.
“I am shocked at the death of 25 migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya. My condolences to the families of the victims. Our workers are returning home in trucks which is dangerous. I appeal to all the state governments to give permission to operate Shramik Special trains so that such incidents are not repeated,” the minister tweeted.
In the last few days politics over the Shramik Specials has heated up as the central government has accused several states of not giving clearance to the railways to run the trains to transport the stranded migrant workers.
The railways started to run the special trains on May 1.
So far, the national transporter has operated 1,034 Shramik Special trains and transported over 1.2mn people across the country.
The millions of labourers, who live off subsistence wages, have become a major concern for the government as it prepares to ease the lockdown from tomorrow in a bid to get the economy moving again.
The government has responded to criticism of its handling of the migrant worker crisis by promising extra finance to get those stranded back home and provide food rations.
Many businesses shut down overnight after the lockdown began on March 25, leaving millions suddenly out of work.
Desperate to return to their home states, many migrants have walked hundreds of kilometres or hitched rides on trucks.
Sixteen were killed this month when a train ran over them as they slept on a railway track.
Migrant workers climb onto a truck to return to their hometowns on the outskirts of Hyderabad yesterday.
