Bodies of 22 migrant workers who were killed following the collapse of an under-construction bridge in Mizoram’s Aizawl district have been recovered so far, officials said on Thursday, reports PTI.
Search is underway for the one person who is still missing. According to a Mizoram police official, two NDRF teams and two state disaster teams were carrying out the rescue operations.
The incident took place at Sairang in Aizawl district, around 19 km from Aizawl city, at around 11 AM on Wednesday after a steel girder for an under-construction railway bridge collapsed at a construction site.
The railways said the accident took place due to the collapse of a gantry, which was being launched on the under-construction bridge over the Kurung river. All the 26 people working there were from the Malda district of West Bengal.
The site where the incident took place is part of the Bairabi-Sairang New Line Railway Project underway by the Indian Railways, to bring railway connectivity to the state with 51.38 km of railway track.
A high-level committee has been constituted to probe the incident.
Following the incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh from the PM’s Relief Fund to the next of kin of the deceased, and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
The Railways said that it would provide ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased, Rs two lakh to those grievously injured and Rs 50,000 for the other injured.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that arrangements have been made to bring the bodies to the state.
Further, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met the families of the victims in Malda district, and assured them of help.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “Anywhere you go in this country, you will come across scores of migrant workers from Bengal, and a significant number of them are from Murshidabad and Malda districts. I understood this very well during the pandemic — from Arunachal to Gujarat, these migrant workers reached out to me for returning home.”
These people are forced to go out of the state for work as there are no employment opportunities in West Bengal, claimed Chowdhury, the MP of Baharampur in Murshidabad.
Criticising the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, he said, “Why can’t the chief minister say that she will provide these people training, improve their skills and create jobs for them? I want to ask the chief minister, what is the number of migrant workers from the state? If you do not know this, it is your failure.”
“The chief minister does not care about the migrant workers, that is why we do not have any data on them. The money they earn abroad runs the rural economy of the state. But, the state does not want to take any responsibility,” he claimed.
President Droupadi Murmu and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthange also expressed their condolences following the accident.
