
While responding to questions raised by MPs – K. Navaskani, Suresh Narayan Dhanorkar and Adoor Prakash in the Lok Sabha session today, the central government said that it had no data on the number of migrant workers that died during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Minister of State (IC) Santosh Kumar Gangwara of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment added that no compensation or assistance was provided to the aggrieved families as there was no such data maintained.
Surprisingly, the statement seems in contradiction to the data released by the Railway Protection Force, which reported that almost 80 died on board the Shramik Special trains, between May 9 and May 27.