Eight migrants from Bihar killed in road accidents

PATNA/SAMASTIPUR: As many as eight Bihar migrant workers were killed and 31 others injured, nine of them critically, while they were on their way home in two separate road accidents in the past 24 hours.
The first accident took place late on Wednesday evening on the Delhi-Saharanpur highway in UP’s Muzaffarnagar when a bus mowed down six migrant workers walking home. Around 12 hours later, two migrants were killed in Samastipur in Bihar when a bus carrying the workers collided with a truck leaving 24 other injured.
In all, 14 migrant workers lost their lives in road mishaps ever since they started returning, some on foot, some on cycles, to their home districts in the wake of nationwide lockdown.
The Samastipur accident took place near Shankar Chowk on the Muzaffarpur-Samastipur road under Ujiarpur police station on Thursday morning. The injured were rushed to the Samastipur Sadar hospital and the primary health centre at Ujiarpur for treatment.
The migrants workers on the bus had arrived on a ‘Shramik special train’ at Muzaffarpur junction around 1 am on Thursday and were on their way home when a truck coming from the opposite direction hit the bus head-on leaving two dead and 24 injured.
The deceased were identified as Tarun Kumar Jha (driver of the bus), resident of Madhubani district and a migrant worker Md. Manzir Alam, a native of Ballia in Katihar district.
SHO of Ujiarpur Shambhu Nath Singh said the bodies were handed over after autopsy. “Four of the critically injured were later referred to the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital for treatment,” he added.
The Samastipur accident happened within 12 hours of the accident in Uttar Pradesh in which six migrant workers were mowed down by a roadways bus on the Delhi-Saharanpur highway in Muzaffarnagar around 10.30 pm on Wednesday. Five workers also received serious injuries in the mishap, which took place near Ghalauli check post.
The deceased were identified as Harak Singh (51), his son Vikas Singh (22), Guddu (18), Harish (22) and Virendra (28), Basudev Patel (45). While Harak, Vikas, Harish and Basudev were residents of Gopalganj district, the remaining two belonged to Patna and Bhojpur districts.
Gopalganj labour superintendent Manoj Kumar Dubey said that the process to provide compensation under migrant workers welfare scheme has been initiated. Arrangements have also been made to provide better treatment to the injured, he added.
In a similar incident, a 25-year-old daily wager Sageer Ansari, a resident of East Champaran district, was killed on Shaheed Path in Lucknow on May 11. Sageer was part of a group of migrants returning home from Delhi on their bicycles.
On April 23, two migrant workers—Mukesh Yadav and Tulsi Ram—were killed and their friend Guddu received serious injuries on Agra-Lucknow Expressway when they were on way to Samastipur and Muzaffarpur districts on a motorbike.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar has expressed grief over the death of six migrants from Bihar on the Muzaffarpur-Saharanpur highway in Uttar Pradesh. He also wished for speedy recovery of the injured and issued directives to provide better treatment.