Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (M.P.,) announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 5 lakh to the families of the migrants who lost their lives in Maharashtra train accident.
On the morning of the 8th of May, a goods train ran over migrants sleeping on the tracks of a railway station in Aurangabad. While 16 died, 5 were seriously injured and are undergoing treatment.
Mr. Chouhan said he spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal regarding the saddened incident.
Madhya Pradesh Government’s compensation announcement came after the Maharashtra Government announced a similar relief of Rs. 5 lakhs for the deceased migrant’s families.
According to sources, the migrant workers were way back to their home in Madhya Pradesh on foot. They switched to tracks after walking 36 miles on foot and in a while fell asleep resulting in their deaths.
A Railway Ministry official said, “After walking for about 36 kms, they were exhausted and sat on and near the track for taking some rest and gradually got into deep sleep.”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also consoled the incident and promised assistance to hundreds of thousands of workers stranded across the country.
Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress (INC) criticised the Central Government for the incident saying due to the lack of care and arrangements for these workers, they chose to walk home.
Lakhs of migrant workers are stranded in different parts of India in the wake of the nation wide lockdown. Though the Central Government approved special Shramik Express trains for these workers, it is not possible to transport all of them at once. At a time, these trains coul ferry only 1,200 workers with the mutual consent of the receiver and the sender states.
The special trains started running from the 1st of May across India.
source: IANS.
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