At least 16 migrant labourers were killed in the train accident in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra on Friday morning. Around 20 migrants were returning their home due to the lockdown crisis walking alongside the railway tracks and were returning to their home town in Madhya Pradesh from Aurangabad. They were walking to Bhusanal from Jalna in central Maharashtra. out of those 20, 16 have died, 4 were critically injured.
After walking around 40 km all of them got tired and decided to take some rest. Due to tiredness and exhaustion, they fell asleep on the railway track thinking that trains aren’t running due to lockdown when the loco train ran over them.
The injured one was also the part of the group but survived as they were sleeping at quite a distance from the track and undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital in Karmad, as per informed by the authorities.
At around 5:15 a.m., a freight train ran over some labourers in a rail track near Karmad, killing 16 of them. One of them is injured and we are counseling three others who fortunately escaped the tragedy to understand what exactly transpired,” said Mokshada Patil, Superintendent of Police (Aurangabad Rural).
After the whole incident, disturbing visuals has been shared by media houses and channels where police authority and rescue teams were seen collecting parts of the mutilated bodies of the deceased. The only thing which was left on the track was some chapatis (which they were struggling and returning to their homes for), torn clothes, and bloodshed.
The migrants aged between 20 and 35 years, were laborers from Umarya and Shahdol (in Madhya Pradesh) and worked at SRG Company in Jalna, Maharashtra.
The chief ministers of both the states I.e. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh promised rs. 5 lakhs ex-gratia as compensation for the families of 16 deceased labours.
“Talks are on with the Centre to run as many trains as possible for migrant workers and laborers and arrangements will be made for all to return to their homes soon,” Mr. Thackeray said appealing to the migrants not to lose patience.
“Extremely anguished by the loss of lives due to the rail accident in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. I have spoken to Railway Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and he is closely monitoring the situation. All possible assistance required is being provided,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.
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