A CPIML-AIARLA team visited many affected families in Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Darbhanga districts of Bihar whose kin died or are still missing in the Balasore train accident. Dhirendra Jha, General Secretary of All India Agricultural and Rural Workers’ Association, informed that so far according to reports from the ground seventeen bodies of migrant workers from Bihar have been identified while around fifty persons are still missing or unidentified. Many family members of missing migrant workers have gone to Odisha and are running pillar to post on their own in absence of proper governmental guidance and help for the victims’ families. The AIARLA teams are visiting all affected villages to make a final report which will be presented to the concerned authorities. Comrade Dhirendra said that among dead in this accident are a large number of migrant workers from states like Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. He has demanded from the Bihar government to immediately release ex gratia fund of at least Rs. Five lakhs to each affected family on humanitarian ground. The AIARLA has also demanded from the central government to provide Rs. 10 lakhs to each family whose loved ones are lost or grievously injured along with a job to one family member as compensation.
In Bangaluru, and other parts of Karnataka, many migrant workers were stranded on railway stations when many trains were cancelled after this tragic accident. A team led by CPIML central committee member Maitreyi Krishnan, after receiving the news that more than 2000 passengers were stranded at the Byapanahalli railway station, went to the station along with some civil society activists and informed the gravity of the matter to the government. In response the officials sent Labour Department and BBMP officers to the railway station. Food and drinking water was distributed to all stranded workers.
