Gorakhpur/Lucknow: Returning home to Uttar Pradesh from Telangana, two migrant labourers were killed and seven others injured after a truck they had hitched a ride on to take a break from walking overturned in Gorakhpur district on Monday, police said.
In another incident, a migrant worker cycling back to his native place in Bihar from Delhi died after being run over by a car in Lucknow on Saturday, they said.
In the Gorakhpur incident, the truck overturned at Kasarwal, killing two labourers and leaving seven injured, the police said.
The deceased were identified as Parshuram (42), a native of Kasmaria village and Rahul (22), a native of Bariyapur village, they said.
According to reports, all nine labourers are residents of Maharajganj district. They were returning from Hyderabad on foot.
The labourers took a lift in a truck, which was transporting sand, in Kanpur. When they reached Kasarwal, the truck driver suddenly lost control of the vehicle and it overturned, they said.
Hearing the cries of the labourers, locals rushed to their rescue and also informed the police, they added.
At the Community Health Centre (CHC), doctors declared Parshuram and Rahul dead. Two labourers — Sanjay from Belwapur village and Munna from Bariyapur village — were seriously injured. They were referred to the Maharajganj district hospital, Sahjanwa police station incharge D K Mishra said.
Five others are undergoing treatment at CHC, Maharajganj, he said.
The labourers’ families have been informed, he added.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Sahjanwa, Anuj Malik told PTI.
In the Lucknow incident, the deceased worker was identified as Sageer Ansari (26), the police said.
The accident took place on Saturday when Ansari was on his way back home to Bihar from Delhi on a bicycle. He was run over by a car on Shaheed Path, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Lucknow South) Rayees Akhtar said.
Ansari along with his eight friends had started from Delhi on May 6, he said.
A case has been registered against the car driver, Ashok Singh, Akhtar said.
“Ashok Singh was taking his daughter to SGPGIMS (Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences) for a medical test when the front tyre of his car burst. As a result, he lost control of the car and hit Sageer,” he said.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed deep anguish over the death of labourers in the Gorakhpur incident.
A government spokesperson in Lucknow said the chief minister has announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each for the injured labourers, besides proper medical treatment.
The Gorakhpur and Lucknow incidents come close on the heels of 16 migrant workers, who were sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh, being crushed to death by a goods train in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad.
Rendered jobless due to the coronavirus lockdown, which began on March 25, and desperate to get home, migrant workers across the country are undertaking long and arduous journeys to their native places on foot, on bicycles or by taking lifts in trucks.
This, despite the Centre allowing special trains for stranded migrants who wish to return to their native places.
According to officials, the railways has ferried home more than 5 lakh migrants on 468 special trains since May 1.