'Extremely tragic': PM Modi, Yogi Adityanath express grief over death of 24 migrants in Auraiya road accident

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed his condolences regarding the "extremely tragic" deaths of 24 migrants in a road accident in Uttar Pradesh's Auriya district early this morning. The Prime Minister further said that the government is "promptly involved" in relief work. Several other politicians, too, expressed their grief regarding the unfortunate incident.

"The road accident in Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya is extremely tragic.  The government is promptly involved in the relief work. I express my condolences to the families of those killed in this accident, as well as wish the injured a speedy recovery," Prime Minister Modi tweeted in Hindi.

उत्तर प्रदेश के औरैया में सड़क दुर्घटना बेहद ही दुखद है। सरकार राहत कार्य में तत्परता से जुटी है। इस हादसे में मारे गए लोगों के परिजनों के प्रति अपनी संवेदना प्रकट करता हूं, साथ ही घायलों के जल्द से जल्द स्वस्थ होने की कामना करता हूं।

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 16, 2020

At least 24 migrant labourers were killed and several others injured in the wee hours of Saturday after the trailer truck they were travelling home in collided with a DCM van in the Auriya district of Uttar Pradesh, around 200 km from state capital Lucknow.

The road accident occurred at around 3 AM, sources confirmed, making this the latest in a series of unfortunate incidents involving stranded migrant workers meeting their hapless fate after facing scores of difficulties while traversing home to their native states, mostly on foot.

"The death of migrant workers in a road accident in Auraiya district is unfortunate and sad, my condolences to the bereaved families of the dead. Instructions have also been given to provide all possible relief to the victims, to provide proper treatment to the injured, and to promptly investigate the accident," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, too, tweeted in Hindi.

Earlier, confirming the development, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi had said, ''Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken note of the unfortunate incident in Auraiya. He has expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the labourers who lost their lives."

Awasthi also informed the Chief Minister has directed the Commissioner and IG Kanpur to visit the site and give the report on the cause of the accident immediately.

The labourers, who were returning home from Rajasthan, were joined by others from Haryana as they were headed towards their native villages in Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal.

This unfortunate development comes days after several migrant workers were killed in two separate road mishaps in Madhya Pradesh's Guna and in Muzaffarnagar in UP.

At least eight migrant workers were killed and 54 got seriously injured in a road accident in the Guna district of Madhya Pradesh May 14 The deceased belonged to Uttar Pradesh and were returning to their home state from Maharashtra amid COVID-19 lockdown, when they met with the accident.

In the second road mishap, at least six migrant workers were killed near Muzaffarnagar after being hit by a UPSRTC bus on May 13 night.

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a plea raising concerns over migrant workers, observing that it was not possible for the court to monitor the situation and that it was up to the state Governments to manage the situation.