In a written reply early in the day, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh told Lok Sabha, "COVID-19 has resulted in migration of large number of workers from destination states to the home-states."
Referring to the data compiled by Ministry of Labour and Employment, the minister said that more than 1.06 crore migrant workers, including those who travelled on foot during the lockdown returned to their home states.
Briefing further on the information over the migrants, the minister informed the Parliament that 81,385 accidents occurred on the roads with 29,415 fatalities during the period March-June 2020.
As quoted by news agency PTI, V K Singh however mentioned that there is no separate data in respect of migrant workers who have died in road accidents.
Last week, the central government for the first time informed admitting that 97 people were reported dead till September 9 while travelling on board the Shramik Special Trains deployed to ferry migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
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Answering to a question raised by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Union Railways minister Piyush Goyal informed the details of total deaths that occurred on-board the Shramik Special trains since they started operating.
Goyal informed the Rajya Sabha that the state police sent 87 of the total 97 dead bodies for post mortem. The reasons for death shown in the post mortem reports in about 51 cases appears to be cardiac arrest, heart disease, brain hemorrhage, pre-existing chronic disease, chronic lung disease, chronic liver disease etc.