Accident kills three in Madhya Pradesh

Three people were killed and 24 injured, when a truck transporting migrant labourers suffered a head-on collision with a goods vehicle on Sagar- Chhatarpur Road in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, police said.

A pickup truck heading towards Uttar Pradesh with migrant workers from Bhiwandi in Mumbai collided with a goods truck travelling from Uttar Pradesh, Banda police station in- charge Kamal Singh said.

The migrants travelling in the pickup truck belong to Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar and adjoining areas in Uttar Pradesh, he added.

According to the police control room, one of the deceased persons was identified as Shivmurti Swaroop (59), a resident of Maharashtra, while the process was underway to ascertain the identities of the other victims.

The 24 injured persons were undergoing treatment, of which two were in a critical condition, civil surgeon V S Tomar of the district hospital said.

Meanwhile, one of the injured workers said they had started their journey from Mumbai four days ago, after they lost their livelihood because of the lockdown.

Three lakh migrant workers from Jharkhand registered to return home: Soren

Nearly three lakh people from Jharkhand, mostly labourers, stranded in various states due to the lockdown have registered to return home, Chief Minister Hemant Soren said on Thursday, and asserted that they will be brought back without any 'ifs and buts'.

Jharkhand is the only state which has made advance payments for receiving its people coming from other states through 'Shramik Special' trains, according to railway sources.

Soren also slammed the Centre for charging 15 percent of the rail travel cost from the state, saying no relief was given to Jharkhand despite it being a source of high revenue for the railways.

In an interview to PTI, the chief minister said about 20,000 migrant labourers and students stranded in other states due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown have already returned to the state since the Centre allowed the movement.

An online registration process has also been started by the Jharkhand government for stranded migrants wanting to return home.

'About three lakh people have registered for returning home since we started the online process about four-five days ago. And the registration is still on,' Soren said.

He, however, added that everyone who has registered may not eventually return with the opening of some economic activity.

'All those who want to come, our government is fully committed to bring them back. We will greet them with open arms and take them home, there are no ifs and buts in that,' the Jharkhand Chief Minister said.

Soren said the challenge for the state government was to transport such a large number of people in a short span of time while taking all precautions.

163 Shramik Special Trains operated so far, more than 1.60 lakh migrants ferried: Railways

The Indian Railways on Thursday said it has operated 163 Shramik Special trains since May 1 and ferried home over 1.60 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Railways said it ran 56 Shramik special trains on Wednesday and 14 so far on Thursday, taking the total tally to 163.

Till May 7, 50 trains were still on their journeys while 113 have reached their destinations.

'We are planning to run some more trains by the end of the day,' a railway spokesperson said.

Every special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. But the national transporter is allowing only 54 people in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger.

While the railways has officially not stated how much it has spent so far on these services, the cost for which the government says has been shared on an 85:15 ratio with states, officials indicated that the national transporter has spent around Rs 80 lakh per service.

Since the Centre allowed movement of migrant workers stranded across the country, many have been successfully sent to their native places. Following suit, state governments have drawn up plans to ferry migrants from and to their states, utilising road transport and the special trains introduced for this purpose..

The Tamil Nadu government has prepared a list of patients and stranded guests from Bihar and West Bengal and said they will be sent home by a special train in a day or two.

'We have gathered the particulars of all those hailing from Bihar and West Bengal including patients at CMC Vellore and migrant guests. They will be sent by a special train today or tomorrow,' said Mangat Ram Sharma, the nodal officer appointed by Tamil Nadu government to oversee the movement of persons stranded due to the lockdown to and from the States and Union Territories.

A Tahsildar in Vellore, engaged in enumerating the stranded persons said initial figures indicated that about 1,500 migrant workers from Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand are still stranded in the district. 'The higher officials have planned to operate three special trains - two on Thursday and the third on Saturday - for the three states,' he said.

On Wednesday night, the first special train,arranged by the Tamil Nadu government on the request of the Jharkhand government,left for Jharkhand from Katpadi in Vellore district.

It will reach the Hatia station in Ranchi on Friday morning.

Vizag gas leak affects movement of trains

The gas leak incident in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam on Thursday has affected movement of trains from the Simhachalam North railway station, including at least nine Shramik Special Trains ferrying stranded migrant workers to their home states, the railways said.

Staff at the Simhachalam north railway station, which is near the chemical plant LG Polymers started feeling suffocated and burning sensation in the eyes soon after the leak.

Trains crossing the railway station stopped from 8:35 am to 12 noon. This affected movement of a number of trains, including 24 goods trains in 'Up' direction and 12 trains in the 'Down' direction.

In railway parlance, 'Up' refers to a train travelling towards its base, and a 'down' to a train travelling away from its base.

Shramik Special trains which have been affected include the Abu Road-Visakhpatnam migrant special. Other Shramik Special rakes, controlled by the Visakhapatnam-headquartered Waltair division, whose movement have been affected are Darbhanga-Thrissur, Hatia -Eranakulam, Saharsa-Chintakunta, Palakkad-Jagannathpur.

Some Shramik Special Trains have also been diverted via Vijayawada Railway station and Balharshah Railway Station. These include Ghatkesar-Katihar, Katpadi-Hatia, Lingampalli-Bhagalpur and Kozhikode-Katihar migrant specials.