[roby_dk]

Tragic incident but walking and sleeping on the track are two different cases. As highlighted in above posts there is no problem in walking on tracks but sleeping could have been avoided.

Reading this I recollect below incident from my memory:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...ml#post4481283 (Horrific Amritsar train accident - Over 60 dead)

[silverado]

Originally Posted by Theyota

Maybe they were afraid that police will stop them and turn them back to where they came from if they walked on the road.

Yes one survivor told that was one of the reason to take to tracks.

Originally Posted by gkveda

Why would anyone take the railway track route to travel from one city to another? If it was road, they could have got into some vehicle and travelled and they could have got something to eat as well.

Only they know what was running in their brains when they slept on railway tracks. We can only pity them.

Taking railway track is very simple as far navigation is concerned.Unlike roads railway tracks are flatter to walk and there will be no inclines.
They were carrying their food, as can be seen in pictures.

They might not have seen a single train running during their journey, leading them to believe all trains are in lockdown.

[i74js]

In a democratic setup, its incorrect to stop people from going back to their families. Its their right.

The administration should have given them time to go back to their families more so when local / state / national government is not sure about the duration of such lock-down with certainty.

This is a case of lack of empathy towards labour class which suffered on multiple occasions in past too while it has given the much needed support to the GDP in hard times.

Recently, several state governments have decided to even dilute the labour protection laws for next 3 - 4 years making them vulnerable even after the businesses revive. Where are we taking the society and its principal contributors through such knee jerk reactions from the governments in order to generate interest among companies to invest in post-CoVID situation.

[pawarsw]

This is single line track so not much space available. This track from Jalna to Aurangabad is close to highway between this 2 cities. In lockdown authorities not allowing people to walk by roads, that is reason workers choose the railway track.
I pray for the departed souls.

[JojyKerala]

A little bit of sensitivity should have been shown by the government and police when the lockdown was first imposed. To be honest, I feel they completely forgot about migrant workers and the poor. Back then, there were only 500 cases of Covid-19. The workers should have been allowed to head home. It was a painful sight watching mothers with young babies walking on highways.

There was a chance to make amends when the 2nd lockdown was imposed. The workers were ignored then as well.

These workers build our cities. My heart goes to the workers who died in the train tragedy. Also, to all the workers who died of exhaustion before they reached their homes. Many were also killed in accidents while walking back. They deserved a lot better.

[howler]

Originally Posted by i74js

In a democratic setup, its incorrect to stop people from going back to their families. Its their right.

The administration should have given them time to go back to their families more so when local / state / national government is not sure about the duration of such lock-down with certainty.
.

Your statement is exactly what is wrong with most relatively free societies these days ; ppl in the US protesting the lockdown , so too in Germany . This is an unprecedented time , nobody has a guide to how to deal with coronavirus and we can all sit back and say the govt should have done this or that . Hindsight is a ..., well you know what .
It is your responsibility as a citizen to follow guidelines and stay put . There are facilities in place for displaced ppl thought not ideal I admit . It’s better than dealing with the risk of spreading the disease given that 80% of tested groups in India don’t show symptoms.
It’s always easy to blame the govt rather than assign blame when one doesn’t follow rules and something bad happens

[The Rationalist]

Those who don’t understand why these people slept on tracks. The railway tracks don’t have much land immediate to the tracks which can be used to walk, forget sleeping.They would have forgot that goods trains are still running. Don’t blame them for being poor and being uneducated. We have failed these people as a society. The blood of these people are on our hands, we can’t wash that away with any sanitizer.

See how a well off dog was treated and how the poor are being treated in our country. The tweet was deleted, but it’s available in archive. http://archive.is/Hn9wB

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

The railway tracks don’t have much land immediate to the tracks which can be used to walk, forget sleeping.

That is not true. I travel by train often and am a railfan myself. Railways normally has ample land on both sides of a track, to unload ballast, sleepers, etc and carry maintenance works, in 99% of the cases. Even if there may not be enough land for track-doubling, there is almost always enough land for 2 people to sleep. So if there were 20 people, they could easily have slept in 10 rows or less.

Risk of snakes etc or an accidental mistaken reliance on *all* trains having been stopped, are more likely the reasons that I can perhaps buy, In either case, I'd not hold the railways or the govt responsible for this accident. There's only so much a govt can do.

I rather deem it as an unfortunate collateral damage due to this nasty mess called Covid19.

[The Rationalist]

Originally Posted by vharihar

There's only so much a govt can do.
I rather deem it as an unfortunate collateral damage due to this nasty mess called Covid19.

Thanks for telling the truth about Governement. Let them stop this drama then as they have done so much! As there will be unfortunate collateral damage due to Covid-19, let’s open the country so the government can still blame the citizens. It’s like “Heads the government win, tails the citizens lose”

[xway]

It pains to see the plight of the poor migrant workers who just for putting food to their families stay so far away in shanties and slums just to make ends meet.
It would have been great if only they had option of getting work in or near their own villages, but thats not the case in this world not least for labourers who cant work from home or Centrally AC Glass buildings, where we take everything for granted and easy.

This tragic incident is utterly disheartening and makes ones heart cry that we all could not do anything or even in future cant do for fellow human beings.

Lets not make it political cry and blame government or any party - its all of us - the world - the nation - the society.

Railway tracks at every few distance have some shanties or godowns or crossing areas or run down buildings or huts, which can accomodate people. Cant imagine on what led them to sleep right on the tracks but its irrelevant and fact is that lives are lost.

[Radiator]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

. Don’t blame them for being poor and being uneducated. We have failed these people as a society. The blood of these people are on our hands, we can’t wash that away with any sanitizer.

The fact that most of the population lacks sympathy and is being ignorant just wrecks my heart.

This image shall haunt us for our lifetime...

[fordday]

As for why are people walking or sleeping on the tracks, we cannot understand whats going on in their minds with hungry, and walking hundreds of kms under this April sun. Any of us put to such a situation can behave in an irrational manner.

Even Railways had this picture to tweet about People resting on tracks link.

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

Thanks for telling the truth about Governement.
It’s like “Heads the government win, tails the citizens lose”

Agreed. The problem here is how do the govts react to a mess like this Covid-19.
If the reaction is thoughtless, unplanned we are bound to see this kind of collateral damage.
As I write this (migrants on the roads walking hungry, getting killed by road/rail accidents) is becoming the main 'mess' whereas covid kills becoming collateral damage.

I can understand we faced similar chaos in 1947, but same thing now in 2020 is simply unpardonable on the part of govt and its decision maker babus.

[JojyKerala]

Originally Posted by Radiator

The fact that most of the population lacks sympathy and is being ignorant just wrecks my heart.

This is exactly what bothers me. Right from the first lockdown, I have friends cursing migrants for venturing on the roads to reach home. They say this while spending time with their loved ones, watching their favorite TV shows, gorging on delicacies ordered online and working from home without losing their jobs.

People who make statements like "it is our duty to stay home" should first put themselves in the migrants' shoes. Understand what it feels like to lose a job and then spend your entire savings on food during the lockdown. Understand what it feels like to have a family back home with no money of their own except what you send them. Understand what it feels like to be in a nation where a majority of the population doesn't care about what they are going through.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Radiator

The fact that most of the population lacks sympathy and is being ignorant just wrecks my heart.

This is nothing new, and I'm sure that man being an empathy devoid being (which is opposite to the popular viewpoint of a largely, narcissistic mankind) was well known to you earlier as well.

There are as many animals suffering from this and have suffered from this since the beginning of time itself.. why did we not bother then? Cows are eating plastic bags, dogs are eating cow dung and birds are plopping from the sky, because we have dominated the landscape and modified crop growing lands, water and air to our convenience.

Today the bottom rung of society are suffering from a similar fate, people moved from small towns and villages to seek the almightly rupee, they left behind agricultural knowledge and a simplistic way of life in the hope that they can educate their children and lift them out if this vicious cycle of hard labor, little did they know that a virus would destroy their dreams and put them in direct line of sight of what would be their worst nightmare - survival of the fittest/richest.

There is a glimmer of hope yet, in this 50 odd days, almost, I've seen people from all walks of life give food, water and comfort to a lot of human beings and animals alike, going by what I saw and heard in a very compact 5 km radius around me, mankind has truly done their job, and these are the same people who also pay GST, IT and provide employment to dozens of other people. Mankind still has a lot of hope left in it, these very people stood upto police abuse and threats to go ahead with their good deeds. Good or bad I dont know, but they did it with love in their hearts.

Now the question to ask is, why are we always victimizing ourselves? Why do we have a feeling of inadequacy to our own contributions to society where we pooh pooh what we as citizens do, while the authorities who planned this lockdown implementation and enforcement are given a free pass?

Most of the population has already done their job being part of the fabric of society, contributing their skill, taxes and of course, social service activities in whatever little ways possible, if anyone dropped the ball here, it wasn't/isn't them.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

Thanks for telling the truth about Governement. Let them stop this drama then as they have done so much! As there will be unfortunate collateral damage due to Covid-19, let’s open the country so the government can still blame the citizens. It’s like “Heads the government win, tails the citizens lose”

I could not resist myself from responding to this post.

Some people think that Government is responsible for anything happening in the country.

Why are we not thinking that we are responsible for our lives than anyone else. If I am careless to drive my car during covid situation and hit a tree to lose my life, how can I blame government?

And mind it, every small event can be deduced to government failure. Some farmer commits suicide due to inability to repay loans, we can deduce the root cause to government failure.

Some college student drinks poison due to love failure and it is not difficult to deduce the root cause to government failure.

It has become a custom to blame government for everything and anything.

Think from this perspective pragmatically.

Just because those 16 people lost their lives, in the urgency of sympathizing those lost lives or souls, one should not forget that it was their primary responsibility to protect themselves and it is not government who has to protect them.

Government has a huge responsibility to save the country from the pandemic.

We send soldiers to the border to save the rest of the country.

So, if some uncalled events happens, we can not say country or government is not working or they are responsible.

Coming to this case, those 16 people made a wrong assumption that train won't run and slept on the track and experienced the result. That's it.

Nothing personal against others opinion or I am not disrespectful about anybody's thought. But this is purely my thought