16 dead on rail tracks: Umaria Collector seeks to prosecute firm

Documents and photographs of some of the 16 migrant workers who came under a goods train in Aurangabad. (Photo: ANI)

Days after 16 workers from Madhya Pradesh were run over by a goods train near Aurangabad, the Umaria District Collector has recommended prosecution of the labour contractor and company that employed four of the victims and one survivor from the district.

The Jalna-based steel firm denied them wages after production was stopped on March 23, and also allegedly cut Rs 2,100 from each of their salaries towards food and accommodation, compelling them to vacate the premises and head home hundreds of kilometres away, as per a probe conducted by the Pali sub-divisional magistrate.

“Had the company followed the guidelines to provide free food and accommodation and arranged transport, the situation… would not have arisen,’’ the SDM said in his report to Umaria Collector Swarochish Somvanshi.

Somvanshi said he will get in touch with his counterpart in Shahdol district — to which the remaining 11 workers belonged — for similar action.