Road accident kills 24 jobless workers in India’s Uttar Pradesh

At least 24 workers were killed and many others injured as a truck carrying them collided with another truck in India's Uttar Pradesh in the wee hours of today.

They were returning to their village homes in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal from Rajasthan after losing their jobs due to the coronavirus lockdown, said officials concerned.

They had hitched a ride on a food carrying truck that collided with another truck in Auraiyaa district, about 200 kilometres from the state capital of Lucknow, around 3:30am, said District Magistrate Abhishek Singh.

Last week, 16 migrant labourers sleeping on rail tracks were crushed by a freight train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers have been walking home from big Indian cities after being laid off because of the lockdown to contain the spread of the disease since late March, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

UP Chief Minister Adityanath has expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and assured providing free medical care to the injured workers.

Indian home ministry has in a statement asked all states and federally-ruled territories to facilitate faster movement of stranded migrant workers to their native places through buses and special trains specifically for this purpose and ensure that these workers do not have to walk back home.

The communication highlighted the situation wherein migrant workers are walking on the roads and on railway tracks.

"All states/union territories were advised that in case they are found in such a condition, they should be appropriately counselled, taken to nearby shelters and provided with food, water, etc. till they are facilitated to board the special trains or buses to their native places," the home ministry said in a statement late on Friday night.

The statement added that the railway ministry is running more than 100 special trains a day for migrant labourers and is ready to arrange additional trains, as per requirements.