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3 migrant workers killed as packed bus overturns in MP's Gwalior, passenger says driver was drunk

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 4/21/2021 11:50:49 AM

New Delhi, Apr 20 Three migrant labourers were killed and eight others were critically injured after an overcrowded bus overturned on a highway near Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district on Tuesday. The bus was on its way to Tikamgarh- Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh from Delhi when the incident happened. More than 12 migrant workers suffered injuries in the accident. A large number of passengers were travelling on the bus, more than its capacity. Police have reached the spot. All the injured have been sent to a hospital in Gwalior. A police official said that while the driver was negotiating a turn, "the bus overturned at the Jourasi Ghat on Gwalior- Jhansi highway around 9 am." Three labourers were killed and eight others injured in the accident. The injured persons were admitted to a government hospital in Gwalior, while the other passengers were being sent to their destinations by other buses. Ganpatlal, a passenger of the ill-fated bus, claimed that nearly 100 people were travelling in the vehicle and a number of them were sitting on its roof. He said the bus conductor charged Rs 700 per passenger for ferrying them from Delhi to Tikamgarh. He also claimed that the entire bus staff, including the driver, consumed liquor after having dinner at Dholpur (Rajasthan) on Monday night. "The bus had hit a truck in Dholpur. Later, after it reached near Gwalior, the driver lost control over the wheels and the vehicle overturned," he was quoted as saying by PTI. Hundreds of panic-stricken migrant workers lined up at Delhi bus terminals to leave for their native places, replaying familiar scenes from last year when, in the absence of any transport due to the coronavi rus - induced lockdown, they were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes. Rendered jobless due to the lockdown, migrant workers, walking in the sun with their belongings and families, became defining images of the lockdown in India.