E-Paper
Migrant workers travel with dead bodies of those killed in UP’s Auraiya
According to information, bodies of at least 17 workers who belonged to West Bengal and Jharkhand were loaded on a DCM truck with some labourers.
The bodies of migrant workers who were killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya road accident last week were stuffed in a truck with the workers and sent to West Bengal and Jharkhand late on Sunday night.
On being tipped off, the Prayagraj police intercepted the truck near Nawabganj and arranged for separate vehicles.
According to information, bodies of at least 17 workers who belonged to West Bengal and Jharkhand were loaded on a DCM truck with some labourers.
IG Range Prayagraj KP Singh said the bodies were sent separately in air conditioned ‘dead body van’ and arrangements were made to send the workers to their native places in another vehicle.
The authorities said that there are only two hearses in the entire district. Therefore, the bodies were transported in a truck with the injured, a senior official said.
It remains unexplained as to why hearses were not requested from adjoining districts like Kanpur, Etawah, Kannauj, Kanpur Dehat.
Both commissioner Kanpur division SK Bobde and DM auraiya Abhishek Singh were not available despite repeated attempts.
In a development, DM Auraiya has suspended five lekhpals Ankit Agarwal, Lalit Pratap, Shashikant Porwal, Bhupendra Pal and Rocky.
These lekhpals were given the responsibility of transporting the bodies of migrant workers.
Twenty-four migrant workers had died and 36 injured on Saturday early morning when a trailer truck carrying sacks of lime, along with 43 people, rammed the back of a stationary truck with many other migrant workers sitting in it on the national highway in Auraiya.
A police sub-inspector and seven constables were suspended for negligence in discharging duty in connection with the incident.
