E-Paper
Migrant workers walking home put in a minibus. It crashes injuring 15
Police officials in Angul said a group of 15 migrants were walking towards Purinakote area of Keonjhar district from Palasa in Andhra Pradesh, amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
At least 15 migrant workers injured, four of them critically, as the minibus they were travelling in, crashed into a tree in Angul district late Wednesday night.
Police officials in Angul said a group of 15 migrants were walking towards Purinakote area of Keonjhar district from Palasa in Andhra Pradesh, amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
On Wednesday, they were stopped at the Boudh district by officials who arranged a minibus for them to help them reach Keonjhar. However, at Thakurgarh area of Angul district last night, the minibus veered off the main road and crashed into a tree.
After the accident, the injured were rescued. While 11 were discharged after minor treatment, four are still in Angul district headquarters hospital as they suffered major injuries.
This is the fourth such incident involving migrant workers from Odisha getting injured and killed in road accidents since the Centre allowed them to go back to their home State.
Early this month, two migrant workers coming back from Surat to their homes in Ganjam district were killed and a few injured when the bus carrying them swerved off the same Kalinga Ghati road in Kandhamal district and dashed against a roadside wall. The two deceased were thrown off the vehicle. A day later, another bus carrying 50 migrant workers from Surat to Ganjam hit a roadside kerb at Kalinga Ghati hilly road leaving 3 injured.
In another accident, 5 passengers, including two minors, from Odisha were injured when the bus carrying them from Surat fell on the roadside ditch on Nagpur-Amravati National Highway in Maharashtra.
After the accidents, the Odisha government had stopped inter-state transportation of the migrant workers by buses as Shramik Special trains from different States to Odisha became operational. However, movement of buses carrying migrant workers between districts still continues.
With 90,000 migrants arriving in Odisha over the last 2 weeks, the number of Covid-19 positive cases have also gone up sharply as most of the positive cases were reported from among the migrant workers travelling from Covid hotspots like Surat, Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Odisha has so far reported 611 positive cases with 73 new cases reported on Thursday. Ganjam district that accounts for a huge population of migrant workers has so far reported 252 cases, the highest in the state.
