A total of 97 people were reported to have died as of September 9 while traveling aboard the Shramik special trains deployed by the Center to transport migrant workers during the blockade period, the government said in response to a question in Rajya Sabha.
On May 30, the Hindustan Times reported that nearly 80 deaths occurred aboard Shramik Special trains between May 9 and May 27, citing data from the Rail Protection Force.
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In response to a question posed by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien in Rajya Sabha on Friday about the details of the total deaths that have occurred aboard the Shramik Special trains since they began operating, the Union Minister of Railways , Piyush Goyal, said: “Of these 97 cases of death, the State Police sent corpses for autopsy in 87 cases. So far, 51 post mortem reports have been obtained from the respective state police, in which the reasons for the deaths have been shown as cardiac arrest / heart disease / brain hemorrhage / pre-existing chronic disease / chronic lung disease / chronic liver disease, etc. ”
The response from the Minister of Railways comes amid a political storm caused earlier this week by the response of the Ministry of Labor in Lok Sabha on Monday indicating that no data is available on the number of migrant workers who lost their lives during the 68-day lockdown imposed on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Shramik special trains began operating on May 1 to transport migrant workers back to their home states during the lockdown period. In total, 4,621 Shramik special trains have been operated between May 1 and August 31, with 6,319,000 passengers to their home states, the ministry said in parliament.
“The surveillance of the railways is a state matter, the prevention of crimes, the registration of cases, their investigation and the maintenance of public order in the railway facilities, as well as in the operation of the trains, are the statutory responsibility of the state governments , which unload through the government railway police (GRP) / District Police. The Rail Protection Force (RPF) complements the efforts of GRP / District Police to provide better protection and security to the passenger and passenger area and for related matters. According to data provided by the state police, as of 09.09.2020 97 people have been reported dead while traveling aboard Shramik special trains during the current Covid-19 situation / crisis. The State registers the case under Section 174 of the Cr.PC in cases of unnatural deaths and follows an additional legal process, ”said Goyal.
In an interview with HT on June 1, Goyal had said that the Indian Railways had been transparent about the deaths and insisted on compiling a list of them and uncovering the causes, even when news reports suggested that “eight or nine migrants “died on Trains. The real number has come up for this alone, he suggested.
Goyal had said that some of the deaths could have been prevented with better medical examinations, but the doctors who were dealing with a large flow of people couldn’t be blamed.
“Indian Railways has a control system where the train stops immediately if someone is sick and they send them to the nearest hospital base to try to save their lives … In case of deaths, local areas investigate the For no reason and without an investigation, there are reports that they starved to death when there was no shortage of food. There were some deaths and we are compiling the figures … we will publish the figures in a few days. The CEO of the Board of Railways, VK Yadav, had said in May.
The IRCTC has received a total of 113 complaints from passengers traveling on 4,621 Shramik special trains about the unavailability of food and water during the journey, Goyal said in response to a separate question about Shramik trains in Rajya Sabha.
Goyal also clarified that Railways did not charge any fees directly to passengers on Shramik trains. “Railways has collected fares for Shramik Special trains from state governments or their authorized representatives. The railways do not charge any passage directly to the passengers ”, he clarified.
“The railways were able to recoup only a small fraction of the expenses incurred in operating the Shramik Special trains, thus incurring a loss in the operation of these trains,” he added.
The fee collected from state governments for the operation of Shramik special trains from May 1 to August 31, 2020 is about Rs 433 million, the ministry said.
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