Accident

‘We sat down on tracks as our legs ached, some dozed off’

Survivor Narrates How They Decided To Take A Break After Walking 35KM

P.Naveen@timesgroup.com

Bhopal: 09.05.2020

They had set off, the 20 of them, with a bundle of rotis and a small dabba of chutney. The food lay scattered amid the remains of the 16 migrants, mowed down by a goods train as they slept on the tracks, on Friday morning.

A survivor of the horror narrated how they decided to take a break as their bones were aching after walking for 35km along the railway lines. They squatted on the tracks near Karmad station and munched their spartan fare.

“Some fell asleep right there, on the tracks, although I warned them not to. I curled up a few steps away. I woke up to the sound of a train and ran towards my friends, screaming for them to wake up. But the train was louder and faster,” Dhirendra Singh, a resident of Mandla district of MP, told TOI over phone.

Dhirendra was among four who survived because they were not sleeping on the tracks. Asked why they decided to walk, he said: “We had applied for lockdown pass from Madhya Pradesh government, but it is still pending.”

He is from Mohad village in Mandla. All four survivors are from the same district. One of them is said to be in a critical condition.

Ten of the dead are from Jaisingh Nagar in Shahdol and six from Umaria.

Seven of the Shahdol victims are from the same family whose houses share walls in Antoli village. Two of them are brothers — Budhraj, 25, and Shivdayal Singh, 20, sons of Gajraj Singh. The siblings had last spoken with Gajraj on Thursday night, and told him that they had run out of money and options, so they decided to walk home. It’s nearly 1,000km from Jalna to Shahdol.

They had all set out together in January to work in steel and iron factories in Jalna. The entire village is in mourning. Many of those dead were the only earning members of their family.

TRAGEDY ON TRACKS: Rotis lie scattered at the site of the tragedy. Ten of the dead were from Shahdol, two of them brothers. They had last spoken to their father on Thursday and told him that they were walking home as they had run out of money and options. The entire village is in mourning