UP: Driver who ran over migrant worker held, owner booked

After covering 550 km, he had to cycle another 460 km to reach his home.

The arrested driver was identified as Ravi Prakash Singh (23). “He will be sent to jail,” said ACP (Mohanlalganj) Sanjiv Sinha.

The accident took place on Shaheed Path in Lucknow under the Sushant Golf City police station limits. On Thursday too, a couple, on a 750-km bicycle journey from Lucknow to Bemetra district in Chhattisgarh, was also killed in a road accident on Shaheed Path. The couple’s two children, aged three and one, survived. Police are yet to identify the vehicle and accused.

Survived on bananas, chuda, says cousin

“For four days, we survived on bananas and chuda (flattened rice) that we were carrying with us. On Saturday morning, we thought of resting for sometime in the shade under trees on the divider on Shaheed Path in Lucknow when a car came and first crashed into the divider and then hit my cousin Shageer. He suffered serious head injuries, leading to his death,” says Sahib Ansari (23).

Shageer and Sahib used to work at a garment factory in New Delhi’s Gandhinagar area and had to leave for their hometown due to the lockdown and shutdown of the factory. The eight migrant workers have been working in Delhi for more than five years and would earn around Rs 10,000 a month, half of which was for home. They shared a single room with six other migrant workers from Bihar’s East Champaran district.

“At 8 am on Saturday, we started. Around 10, we thought of resting for a while and eating the chuda and some fruits we had bought. Then, a car came and hit my cousin. It was being driven very fast and the driver probably lost control. The driver escaped, while we took him to the hospital with help from police. Around 1:30 pm, the doctors told me that Shageer had died,” said Sahib, waiting at the mortuary at King George’s Medical University’s mortuary to receive the body on Sunday.

Asked if they knew about special trains for migrant workers, Sahib said, “No, we did not know the details about trains. But we had heard trains were running to UP. But everyone knows how these things are. It takes time and we could not stay in Delhi any longer because we would have starved. We borrowed money from some people, including the landlord, and all of us left with a total of Rs 4,000 to reach home. We were eight people who left Delhi because there was no work and we had run out of money. After more than 40 days (of the lockdown), we had exhausted all resources to keep ourselves fed.”

On Sunday afternoon, the body was being taken to Bihar for burial. Sahib added, “We had started from Delhi on May 5 on six bicycles. Our landlord, sardarji, helped us a lot and gave us food for some days, but he is also not so rich that he can keep feeding us. There were no arrangements for food and so we decided to leave on bicycles.”

Ensure victims are treated properly: CM to Shivraj Singh

Lucknow: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday requested his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chauhan to ensure injured migrant workers of UP who met with an accident in Narsinghpur area of MP were properly treated.

Adityanath also announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the families of the people who died in the accident and expressed grief over the accident.

At least six migrant labourer were killed and 14 others injured when a truck in which they were travelling overturned in Narsinghpur district on Saturday night.

The UP chief minister instructed officials to ensure that the bodies reach their family members. “The expense for the treatment of the injured will be paid by the UP government,” said an official statement.