Fourteen migrant labourers were killed and nearly 60 injured in two road accidents while they were on the way to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, police said on Thursday.
In an early morning accident in Guna in Madhya Pradesh, eight UP-bound migrant workers were killed and nearly 55 injured when the truck they were travelling in collided with a bus, the MP Police said.
The second accident took place in UP’s Muzaffarnagar around 10.30 pm on Wednesday when six migrant workers walking to their homes in Bihar from Punjab were killed and four seriously injured after being hit by a roadways bus on the Delhi-Saharanpur Highway, officials said.
The Guna accident took place around 3 am Thursday when the truck carrying nearly 65 migrant labourers from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh collided with a bus, which only had a driver, coming from the wrong side on the Guna bypass road, Superintendent of Police Tarun Nayak said.
The injured were undergoing treatment at the Guna district hospital, he said, adding that none of them sustained any serious injury.
Prima facie, it seems the carelessness of the bus driver caused the accident, Nayak said, adding a case has been registered against the bus driver and further investigation is underway.
The deceased were residents of Unnao and Raebareli districts of Uttar Pradesh, according to police, who also said the truck carrying the migrant labourers was going to Unnao.
Guna Collector S Vishwanathan said the district administration is making arrangements to send the injured labourers home safely after they recover.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan condoled the death of the migrant labourers and said he has directed officials concerned to ensure proper treatment of the injured persons.
In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced an ex gratia payment of Rs. 2 lakh each to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 each for the seriously injured, officials said. Yogi directed officials to coordinate with the Madhya Pradesh government for ensuring proper treatment of the injured, they added.