One phone call saved 16 lives …

Opposition criticism of Madhya Pradesh government
Bhopal: The death of 16 migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh in the Aurangabad train accident raises questions about the lack of coordination between the states. Some of the migrant workers, working at a factory in Jalna, Maharashtra, left their hometowns on foot on Thursday night. According to sources, the death of a goods lord was reported to have been resting on the railroad tracks near Aurangabad.

The Madhya Pradesh government has appointed Principal Secretary-level officials to oversee the repatriation of workers from other states. Deepali Rastogi, Principal Secretary to the Department of Tribal Affairs, is in charge of Maharashtra. The opposition alleges, however, that none of the relevant authorities were available to the workers. They criticized the tragedy if the authorities had at least made it available by phone.

“Has Madhya Pradesh government recorded the details of migrant workers? If enrolled, what efforts have been made to bring them back to their home state? Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan should be ashamed of this. He should be responsible for the incident. Instead of making statements in front of the media … to resort to further action. Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijay Singh demanded an impartial inquiry into the tragedy.

One of the caseworkers said that they had not issued passes for more than a week after applying for them, or at least not responding. The father of the deceased Raj Borham lamented that his son, who had gone there due to lack of farm work in the village, had been neglected by the authorities.