CPIML has expressed deep grief at the death of 26 migrant workers and sympathy with those injured in road accidents at Auraiya and Agra while they were trying to return home. The government is squarely responsible for the deaths and proper compensation should be paid to the families of the deceased and the injured as well as free and proper medical treatment for the injured.
CPIML UP State Secretary Sudhakar Yadav said that these deaths are Lockdown-induced massacres created by the government. If proper and safe train and bus arrangements had been made for the migrant workers forced by the Lockdown to return home, these deaths could have been prevented. He said that the number of Shramik Special trains being run is not at all sufficient compared to the required number. The number of migrant workers seen walking home on the highways and roads or travelling in unsafe and risky transportation is many times more than the number of workers claimed to be transported home by the government. It is not as if the government lacks trains and buses; what they lack is the willingness to safely bring back workers home.
He said that the online system for registration of workers to return home gives no indication as to whose turn will come and when it will come. Despite all requests, the concerned Thana or administration gives no definite response or permission. Desperate and defeated by the indefinite wait for their turn, the hungry and starving workers with their families are forced to start walking hundreds of kilometers. The deaths are now occurring daily and their numbers are increasing, but the government is either blind to these tragedies or is deliberately blinding itself to them.
CPIML demanded that all workers who wish to return home should be sent home without delay using funds from the PM CARES Fund.
