Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has informed the Rajya Sabha that 97 people have died on the Shramik Special trains which were run to take them back to their homestowns during the COVID-19 lockdown. In the written reply to TMC MP Derek O’Brien’ query Goyal provided the upper house with the death statistics.
“Based on the data provided by State Police, 97 persons have been reported dead till 09.09.2020 while travelling on board Shramik Special Trains during current Covid-19 situation/crisis. The state police registers case under Section 174 of Cr.PC in cases of unnatural deaths and follows further legal process,” the reply read. Police had sent 87 bodies for post-mortem and the main reasons listed as cause of death are cardiac arrest,heart disease,brain haemorrhage,pre-existing chronic disease,chronic lung disease,chronic liver disease.
Railway Ministry’s statement comes after the government came under fire for saying that there is no data available about the death of migrant labourers during the lockdown. 4,621 Shramik trains had ferried 6,319,000 passengers to their home states, from the month of May amist the choas caused by the lcokdown.