Waiting for a ride back home, five migrants hailing from UP were killed while 8 others were critically injured after being hit by a truck on KMP (Kundli Manesar Palwal Expressway) in Haryana early morning on Sunday.
The yet-to-be-identified deceased included a one-year-old toddler and a woman of around 30 years of age. The group was allegedly walking from Manesar to UP and had halted near Panchgaon, after hearing about an Aligarh-bound bus slated to come there. It was then that a speeding truck ferrying vegetables rammed into them.
The canter was reportedly ferrying vegetables from Ahmedabad and going to Gaziabad. According to driver Rakesh Yadav, who has since been arrested, his vehicle's brakes failed. According to one of the survivors Kuldeep, the truck first hit two autos that were nearby and then, despite people screaming for it to stop, it did not halt.
"There was a bus headed to Aligarh expected to come there and [around 15 of us] stood there. Suddenly a canter came from Farukh Nagar side and it was going zig-zag. There was not much light on KMP and it hit autos standing nearby. We screamed to let driver know we were there and he suddenly turned towards us and mauled us," said Kuldeep.
Following his complaint, an FIR has been registered against the truck driver under sections 279, 336, 337, 304(ii) of IPC. The Gurugram police is busy trying to identify the deceased and injured.
There have been several incidents of migrant workers dying while making the arduous journey back to their homes. On Sunday morning, two women labourers were run over by a freight train in Gujarat while they were walking back to their home. Another worker passed away from a heart attack in Madhya Pradesh. A day earlier, four migrant workers from Rajasthan were crushed to death after a tempo ran over them.
Manesar, North India's biggest auto hub is seeing an unprecedented exodus with hundreds of people marching back to native places. Out to deal with same, local administration has set up 23 relief camps in community centres schools providing free food and lodging to migrants urging them to stay put.
"Nobody will go hungry in Manesar or Gurugram. We are providing ration and even free lodging and food. The migrants are being screened for COVID-19 symptoms. We are urging them to stay back as exodus can spell trouble," said Gurugram DC Amit Khatri.