Train runs over 14 people in India

[Aspen]

A train in western India has ran over migrant workers sleeping on the tracks, killing at least 14 among a group of people returning to their villages, according to officials.

Tens of thousands of labourers have been walking home from India's key cities after losing their jobs in recent weeks because of a lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The railways ministry said on Friday the driver of the freight train in Maharashtra statetried to stop in time but failed.

Fourteen people were killed and five were injured, according to spokesman, CH Rakesh.

"I have just heard the sad news about labourers coming under the train, rescue work is under way," Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said on Twitter.

The ministry said it had ordered an inquiry into the incident.

'Exhausted, fell asleep on the tracks'
Police said the labourers worked for a steel company and were walking to their village in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh.

"They had been walking all night, they were exhausted and fell asleep on the tracks," a police officer said.

Because of the lockdown, they were probably not expecting any trains to be moving, an official said.

Under the lockdown, all public transport has been suspended so migrant workers heading home often have to walk long distances to reach their destinations.

The government has extended the lockdown until May 17.

The opposition and activists have pointed out that the government has arranged planes to bring back Indians from overseas while leaving migrant workers stranded in big cities with little food or cash.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his "anguish at the loss of lives" in the accident. "All possible assistance required is being provided," he tweeted.

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the main opposition Congress party, said he was "shocked by the deaths of migrant workers".

"We should be ashamed of how we treat our nation-builders," he said.

Over the past week, some state governments facing public pressure organised trains and buses to bring back migrant workers.

Many are trudging great distances in the blistering heat through fields and forests to get home.

India's railway network is one of the largest in the world and carries about 23 million passengers a day.
Accidents are common, with most blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

A 2012 government report described the loss of 15,000 passengers to rail accidents every year in India as a "massacre".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...s-walking-home-run-train-200508041538859.html

 

[I S I]

Rip

 

[undercover JIX]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his "anguish at the loss of lives" in the accident. "All possible assistance required is being provided," he tweeted.

Modi hai to momkin hai.....Jai ho

 

[Shantanu_Left]

That's INCREDIBLE INDIA for you.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his "anguish at the loss of lives" in the accident.

Coming from him, it's more like crocodile tears.

 

[undercover JIX]

That's INCREDIBLE INDIA for you.

wait for some intelligent Indians, they will provide you with perfect justification. nothing bad or wrong can happen in india under Modi ji.

 

[Khanivore]

wait for some intelligent Indians, they will provide you with perfect justification. nothing bad or wrong can happen in india under Modi ji.

Just another day in the great, mystical SupaPowa 2020.

 

[Trango Towers]

Superpower where people sleep on the train tracks. How sad

 

[kingQamaR]

It’s a regular occurrence in there country of people being killed in multiple daily incidents dozens being killed at a time. They just don’t value People’s lives and each other.

 

[Taimoor Khan]

All thanks to Modi policies.

Is the mass migration still ongoing in India, the shupa powa!

 

[Asian.Century]

Why these things always happen in India, run over 14 innocent Indians by a train, pathetic.

Remember this in Bihar India back in 2013: https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/train-runs-over-35-pilgrims-in-bihar.272291/

 

[Shantanu_Left]

More on Narendra Modi's crocodile tears concerning the death of the 14 poor persons. Nice Op-ed. BJP clearly hates the poor serfs of India.
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/bjp-is-singularly-anti-poor-decisions-clearly-prove

BJP is singularly anti-poor, decisions clearly prove

The arbitrary way nationwide lockdown was first announced, the migrant workers’ issue was handled and tragic train accident on Friday morning exposed absence of a concrete govt plan to fight COVID-19

The arbitrary way a nationwide lockdown was first announced with a mere 4-hour warning; the way migrant workers’ issue was handled and the tragic train accident on Friday morning in which 15 migrants were killed while sleeping on the track exhausted by walking back home from Maharashtra to Madhya Pradesh exposed absence of a concrete game plan of the Narendra Modi- led BJP government at the Centre in combating the COVID-19 situation.


It also marked a fundamental lack of understanding of how the poor and the marginalised in this country live. Over 80 per cent of Indian families live in a single room, many cramped in slums and spaces where social distancing is a misnomer. The poor people like the migrant wage labourers do not even stock up for a week as they can’t afford to do so.

They work throughout the day and buy essentials to tide them over the next 24 hours in the early evening with the money they have earned during the day. When economists and experts asked the government to make arrangements for the migrant workers to return to their villages, the government turned a blind eye to them for over a month. The migrants started walking towards their homes in desperation, many perishing in the course of the hundreds of kilometers they had to traverse.


While Indians stranded abroad were ferried home by airplanes for free, the migrant poor were left to fend for themselves. It was only in the first week of May that the Centre announced the running of special trains to take the migrants home. But the circular of the Ministry of Railways dated May 2 made it clear that the workers would have to pay for their tickets and that the state governments were responsible for collecting the same.


Then, after Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced that state units of the party will pick up the bill, within hours, the Centre announced that it would foot 85 per cent of the travel expenditure, leaving the remaining to the state. But even that was not true. BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh made it clear that the Railways already subsidised 57 per cent of passenger fare and that since trains will carry one-third of passengers and return empty, this accounted for another 28 per cent.

The maths behind the 85 per cent thus became clear. The utter lack of sensitivity of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) towards the plight of the poor got exposed again earlier this week when Karnataka’s BJP government cancelled trains for migrant labourers following a meeting between the state’s realtors and Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa. Since migrants propel the engine of growth, different industries are afraid that many of them would not return to work after the economy re-opens.

The Karnataka government has reduced the migrants to bonded labourers by making sure they cannot leave and have to take up work to survive in the cities and towns.

This is an unprecedented and unparalleled decision in a modern, democratic society and reveals the BJP’s collusion with the exploitative quasi-feudal crony capitalist class. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may shed crocodile tears for the condition of the poor every now and then but each move of his government and his party points towards the fact that the BJP is an enemy of India’s poor and impoverished people.