Truck collision in Madhya Pradesh kills 14 labourers, more than 50 injured

Mangalore Today News Network

Madhya Pradesh, May 14, 2020: At least 14 labourers were killed and around 54 others sustained injuries in a truck collision in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna late Wednesday night, news agency ANI reported.

 

The labourers were travelling in the truck from Maharashtra to their native place in Uttar Pradesh when it collided with a bus in Guna’s Cantt PS area last night. The injured were moved to the nearest district hospital. More details on the accident are awaited.

Meanwhile, in another mishap involving migrant workers, six labourers lost their lives while four others were injured as a roadways bus ran over them in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar late Wednesday night.

The labourers were on their way to Bihar from Punjab when the accident took place.

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, the country has witnessed an exodus of migrant labourers, many of those often resort to risky measures just to reach their native land. Most are seen travelling in a risky situation with no masks in overcrowded trucks.

Rising temperature and death of at least 8 migrant workers in the past 20 days led to Madhya Pradesh government lifting restrictions on the MP-Maharashtra border for labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, officials said.

The influx of migrant labourers, about 25,000 per day on an average, has caused worries to the administration. These labourers are covering hundreds of kilometres travelling or walking through the state up to the UP border. Screening such a large number of workers, including the elderly, women and children, is practically not possible, officials said.