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 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.
Soon after the accident, the police and district officials rushed to the site and commenced rescue operations with the help of local residents, as evident from on-site visuals. The cops have retrieved injured labourers from the accident site and the wounded have been shifted to the hospital.
Confirming the development, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi 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 also directed the Commissioner and IG Kanpur to visit the site and give the report on the cause of the accident immediately. Following this order, Mohit Aggarwal, the Inspector-General of Kanpur reached the spot of the accident for inspection.
According to the latest updates, The Station House Officer (SHO) of Fatehpur Sikri in Agra and Kosi Kalan, the SHO of Mathura have both been suspended with immediate effect on the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Yogi has also sought a report from the Superintendent of Police, the Inspector-General, and the Assistant Director-General regarding the incident and has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakhs for families of deceased persons and an amount of Rs 50,000 for the injured.
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.
For context, 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.
Not just this, 16 migrant workers were run over by a goods train in Maharashtra last week while returning home on foot to their home in Madhya Pradesh amid the coronavirus lockdown.
While hearing a petition filed regarding the case yesterday, the Supreme Court of India asked how anyone can stop incidents like Aurangabad when "they sleep on railway tracks".
The top court also 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.
