Seven deaths reported on-board migrant trains
No end to their woes:
NEW DELHI: At least seven deaths on-board migrant special trains were reported on Wednesday, officials said, putting the Railways in the dock. It, however, said most of the deceased had pre-existing health conditions.
The seven deaths — four on-board trains travelling to Bihar and three terminating in Uttar Pradesh — happened over the past few days, and were reported on Wednesday.
The death of 35-year-old Uresh Khatoon shook the conscience of the nation and left the Railways scrambling for an explanation. Her toddler’s vain attempt to wake her up from the eternal sleep on a platform in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur was captured in a moving video that went viral on social media on Wednesday, opening the floodgates of criticism for the Railways.
Another death reported from Muzaffarpur was that of a four-and-a-half-year-old son of a migrant from Bihar based in Delhi. The boy died at the railway station here on arrival by a ‘Shramik Special’ train, while his father desperately hunted for some milk he believed would have saved his child.
In the state’s Danapur, the body of 70-year-old Basisth Mahato, a heart patient, was taken out of the MumbaiDarbhanga Shramik Special train. Mahto was returning with his family after treatment in Mumbai and died between Maihar and Satna, the Railways said.
Also, a 58-year-old migrant worker, identified as Bhushan Singh of Saran district in Bihar, died on-board the Surat-hajipur Shramik special train on Tuesday evening, Superintendent of Police, Devendra Nath, said.
In Uttar Pradesh, a migrant train from Mumbai reached Manduadih, Varanasi, on Wednesday with two dead passengers — physically challenged Dashrath Prajapati (30), and 63-year-old Ram Ratan Gaud.
The Railways said while Prajapati was suffering from kidney disease, Gaud had “many ailments”.
The body of Sheikh Salim, 45, a resident of Bahraich (UP) was found aboard the VapiDeen Dayal Upadhayay Junction Shramik Special train when it reached Sagar station.
The Railways said the body has been kept at the district hospital for postmortem and for testing of Coronavirus.
Travelling migrant workers have complained of lack of food and water on-board these special trains and also alleged they are not running on time and are being diverted “at will”.
The Railways has, however, maintained that these trains are running on “pre-scheduled rationalised routes”.
Some trains which should have taken 24 hours to reach their destinations, arrived in over two days, according to reports, leaving the passengers on-board hungry and desperate.
Many passengers have tweeted that they were starving on-board due to longer than anticipated run time of these trains.
To deal with the issue, the Railways through an order on May 22, empowered the General Managers of each zone to spend up to Rs 1 lakh on each Shramik Special train to arrange meals for the workers.