[Marxistindia] Condemn Criminal Treatment of Migrant Workers

[news from the cpi(m)]

May 8, 2020


  Press Statement


The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued  
the following statement:


Condemn Criminal Treatment of Migrant Workers


The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses  
its deep shock and anguish over the tragic death of 16 migrant workers  
who were travelling from Jalna in Maharashtra where they were walking  
to their native place in Sahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. The  
tragedy took place at 5.30 a.m. this morning when these hapless  
workers, exhausted as they were, had fallen asleep on the railway  
track itself.


The CPI(M) is of the firm opinion that this is no accidental death but  
the result of the criminal apathy of the central government to the  
plight of the migrant workers and their unbearable state of  
desperation. The refusal to run trains for over a month and then to  
charge fares for reaching their homes when they have no money or food  
to survive has led to such tragedies.


The fact that the overwhelming majority of the sixteen workers whose  
lives were snuffed out are tribals, underlines the deep social and  
economic divide and inequalities that the overwhelming majority of our  
population face. The reported enquiry that the government is  
initiating is an eyewash that limits the scope to mere technicalities  
of the accident.


The CPI(M) reiterates the demand that the government reverses its  
policy of reprehensible apathy towards the plight of the migrant  
workers and takes up their transportation free of cost and provide  
every migrant worker along with all non-tax paying citizens Rs. 7500  
per month as cash support for three months and free rations to all  
needy. This is the minimum which can barely redress the tragedy that  
has shocked the nation. The government must make adequate ex gratia  
payment of compensation for the dead and injured workers.


For CPI(M) Central Committee Office