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30 migrant workers killed in India lockdown crashes
NEW DELHI, May 16, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – At least 30 Indian migrant workers were
killed Saturday in road accidents as they tried to get to return to their
home villages during a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, officials said.
The accidents, in central and northern India, were the latest involving
some of the millions of labourers left stranded and jobless by the seven-week
shutdown.
Scores have died in road and rail accidents and even from exhaustion
walking home.
In the most deadly incident, a truck carrying about 40 labourers struck
another vehicle also carrying workers and their families that was parked at a
roadside cafe in Uttar Pradesh, local magistrate Abishek Singh told AFP.
It is thought the driver of the truck had fallen asleep, Singh said. The
vehicle was carrying lime powder which suffocated many of those who died, all
of whom were men, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “extremely tragic” in a
Twitter post and said relief work was in “full swing” at the scene.
A drunk driver was blamed for the second accident, in Madhya Pradesh, when
a truck bringing labourers back from neighbouring Maharashtra state
overturned, local official Shashi Mishra said.
Four of the five dead were women and 17 people were injured, he added.
The millions of labourers, who live off subsistence wages, have become a
major concern for the government as it prepares to ease the lockdown from
Monday in a bid to get the economy moving again.
– More cases than China –
The government has responded to criticism of its handling of the migrant-
labourer crisis by promising extra finance to get those stranded back home
and provide food rations.
Many businesses shut down overnight after the lockdown began on March 25,
leaving millions suddenly out of work.
Desperate to return to their home states, many migrants have walked
hundreds of kilometres or hitched rides on trucks.
Sixteen were killed this month when a train ran over them as they slept on
a railway track.
The government is also battling a surge in coronavirus cases in major
cities like Mumbai and New Delhi as it prepares to ease the lockdown.
Cases in India rose by nearly 4,000 overnight to 85,940, eclipsing the
number officially registered in China — where the pandemic started last
year. India’s death toll is 2,752, while China’s stands at 4,633.
Economist Shamika Ravi, who advises the government and is a much-watched
commentator on coronavirus in India has warned that the country must do more
to control the outbreak in Mumbai, Delhi and other cities.
With the pandemic still weeks away from peaking, Mumbai has already run out
of hospital beds to treat coronavirus patients.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan recently told AFP that India had reacted
faster to the pandemic than many richer countries and controlled it better.
BSS/AFP/MRU/1735hrs