The West Bengal Migrant Workers Union on Tuesday has demanded a judicial probe on the derailment of the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel express train near Bahanaga railway station in Odisha’s Balasore district on Friday evening.
According to them, those travelling in the unreserved compartment of the train and killed should be identified and their indemnities should be disclosed officially, said the union’s state chief and former CPI-M legislator S.M. Sadi.
“West Bengal has a large number of migrant workers. As the records of the casualties in the train from West Bengal have been identified, the majority were migrant workers. Our demand is one job for one family member for each of the migrant worker casualties in the train accident,” he said.
Sadi also said that often the migrant workers from West Bengal die in accidents in other states. “But unfortunately, they do not get the necessary compensation. We do not want the same thing to be repeated in this case as well. Hence, we are also demanding a judicial probe in the matter.”
He also said that it would have been better if the state government had announced a better compensation package for the families of the casualties. “But whatever it may be, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should ensure that the compensation and job offers do not remain promises and those go to the right people,” Sadi added.
In fact, immediately after the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel express train derailment Leader of Opposition in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari too attacked the West Bengal government over the migrant workers’ issue. “The current number of migrant workers from West Bengal is nine time of what it was in 2011 when the Trinamool Congress regime came to power in West Bengal for the first time. This is because of the disruptive police of the state government that is shying away industrial investment in the state and the resulting employment generation,” Adhikari said.
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