15 migrants on way home killed in 24 hrs

ACROSS STATES Six run over by bus in UP, eight killed in MP accident and one dies in Bihar after a bus-truck collision

nNEWDELHI: Fifteen migrant workers on their way back to their homes were killed in three accidents, one each in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar in the past 24 hours, police officials said.

They added that close to 100 were also injured in road accidents across states on Thursday, as migrant workers continue to seek rides on trucks, cycle, or just walk on the country’s highways in a struggle to return home. The government , starting May 1, announced special trains for migrant workers, but there are still far too few of them and far too many workers wanting to return home. Some of the workers do not have documentation required to travel; others have not registered for the trains or buses being run.

Millions of workers were left without work across cities and towns in India when the lockdown was announced on March 24, resulting in the first wave of workers going back to their villages. Every phase of the extension has seen a new wave -- the lockdown was extended twice, from April 14 to May 3 and then May 3 to May 17.

On May 8, 16 workers sleeping on the tracks were run over by a goods train in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district. On May 9, five workers were killed in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district when the truck in which they were travelling hit the central verge of the road.

Late on Wednesday night, six labourers, who were walking from Punjab to their village in Gopalganj, Bihar, were killed and four others were seriously injured when a Uttar Pradesh Road Transport bus ran over them on the Saharanpur-muzaffarnagar highway.