97 people died in Shramik Special trains: Piyush Goyal

Ninty-seven people died while travelling in the Shramik Special trains, which were run to ferry stranded migrant workers during Covid-19 lockdown, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.

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“Based on the data provided by the State police, 97 persons were reported to have passed away till 09.09.2020 while travelling onboard Shramik Special trains during Covid-19," Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The State police had sent the bodies for post-mortem in 87 cases. 51 post-mortem reports have been received from respective state police so far, in which reasons for deaths have been shown as cardiac arrest/heart disease/brain haemorrhage/pre-existing chronic disease/chronic lung disease/chronic liver disease etc,” he said.

In another reply on Shramik Special trains fare, the Minister said: “Fare of Rs 433 crore has been collected from the State governments and from the representatives of the State governments for running them from 01.05.2020 to 31.08.2020.”

He also said the national transporter recovered only a small fraction of expenditure incurred on running them thereby incurring a loss.

For Shramik Special trains the railways made special arrangements including enhanced sanitisation, security, medical arrangement, rake sanitisation, free meals and water. This had added to the overall cost of running them, he said.

The Railway Minister statement came two days after Union Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said that the government has no data about the workers who had lost their jobs and lives during the pandemic.

As per the Railways data, since May 1, it operated 4,621 Shramik Special trains transporting 63.19 lakh passengers to their home states.