At least eight workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act were killed on Sunday afternoon when a speeding car ploughed into a group of labourers resting by the roadside on the Lehragaga-Jakhal road in Punjab's Sangrur district, in one of the deadliest road accidents in the state in recent months. Several others were seriously injured, and the death toll may rise because some of the injured remain in critical condition in hospital.
The accident took place between 3 pm and 4 pm. According to reports, around 23 to 25 men and women working under the MGNREGA scheme were engaged in road-related work along the stretch when the tragedy struck. Eyewitnesses said the workers had paused for a water break and were sitting on the roadside when a car coming at high speed veered towards them and ran straight through the group.
The force of the impact flung bodies across the road, and several workers were left lying motionless where they sat.
Initial reports from the police, carried by the Press Trust of India, said five workers had died on the spot and that several others had been injured. Later reports put the death toll at eight, as some of the injured succumbed to their injuries during treatment.
The Statesman noted that reports published by The Times of India and Navbharat Times put the figure at nine, but police officials maintained that the final toll would only be established after medical reports were received from the hospitals. The discrepancy underlines the confusion that surrounded the immediate aftermath of the crash.
The deceased were identified in reports as Karamjit Kaur, Jeevan Singh, Nikki, Sarabjit Kaur, Ranjeet Kaur, Karamjit, Rani Kaur and Deshraj. Most of them were residents of Alisher village near Lehragaga in Sangrur district, while Deshraj's address was not specified in the reports. The victims included women labourers, reflecting the large presence of women in the rural workforce employed under the scheme.
The injured were rushed to government hospitals in Lehragaga and Sunam, where they are undergoing treatment. Hospital sources cited in reports said several of the injured were in a critical condition, raising fears among local residents and the workers' families that more deaths could be reported.
Harvinder Singh, also known as Lavi, who works at a nearby factory, told reporters that he rushed to the spot after hearing about the accident. He described a scene of devastation: five or six workers lay on the road in a condition that appeared beyond survival, while others who had been struck were critically injured. He said the car had hit several workers in quick succession, leaving the injured in an extremely serious state.
The most serious allegations from the site relate to the emergency response. Eyewitnesses claimed that ambulances took nearly an hour to reach the spot despite repeated calls, and that the delay may have cost lives. Harvinder Singh alleged that the ambulance arrived almost an hour after the calls were made, and that by the time the police reached the scene, the injured had already been moved to hospitals by others.
Another witness, Amritpal Singh, said the workers were drinking water when the car ran over them, and added that only one police employee initially reached the location even though the scale of the accident was enormous. The witnesses also questioned why the police response was so slow when, according to them, a police post was located barely a minute away from the accident site. These claims have not been independently verified, but they have fuelled anger in the area.
Equally troubling were the claims about the driver. Harvinder Singh alleged that the driver remained at the scene for about 15 minutes after the crash but then managed to leave. He demanded that the driver be brought back before the people and face strict action, questioning how the man was allowed to slip away after causing so much destruction.
India TV reported that the driver has since been identified as Pargat Singh, alias Kala, a resident of Raidhrana village. Sangrur Superintendent of Police Palwinder Cheema said the driver had been identified and traced, and that an arrest was expected soon. Police said proceedings were being initiated to register a criminal case against the driver.
There was some confusion over the vehicle itself. Witnesses speaking to The Statesman described it as a speeding Hyundai Verna, while India TV reported that the vehicle involved was a Chevrolet Magnum bearing a Punjab registration number. The make of the car has not been officially clarified.
Police officials who visited the spot also issued an appeal to people to avoid sitting on roads, a remark that drew criticism from locals who pointed out that the workers had been doing their assigned job along the roadside and had stopped only to drink water.
Punjab Cabinet Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal expressed deep grief over the incident and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families, according to PTI reports. Senior police and administrative officials reached the accident site and the hospitals soon after receiving information, PTC News reported.
The tragedy has triggered outrage in Lehragaga and the surrounding villages. Harpreet Singh, a resident of Alisher village, accused successive governments of abandoning rural labourers to dangerous working conditions and of failing to learn from earlier tragedies. He claimed that a similar accident in the past had claimed six or seven lives, but that nothing changed afterwards, and he warned that the present tragedy would also be forgotten within days.
He demanded that MGNREGA employment be provided within villages instead of sending labourers to work alongside busy roads. He asked how many more lives would have to be lost before the authorities acted.
Local residents also urged the administration to strengthen safety measures for workers employed along roadsides and to take strict action against those who drive at high speed. The incident has reopened a long-standing debate about the vulnerability of roadside workers in India.
MGNREGA labourers, a large share of them women, are routinely assigned earthwork and road-related tasks along national and state highways, where they work within metres of fast-moving traffic with little more than their tools for protection. Protective barriers, warning signage and traffic diversions around such work sites are frequently missing, and the workers themselves have no safety equipment.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, under which the victims were employed, is one of the world's largest rural employment programmes. It guarantees about 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work.
Road construction and maintenance, desilting, earthwork and similar tasks make up a large share of the projects taken up under the scheme, which is why its workers are so often found labouring along open roads.
As the day ended, the district administration and the police were still piecing together the sequence of events. A case was being registered against the driver, the identified accused was being traced for arrest, and hospitals in Lehragaga and Sunam were treating the injured.
For the families of Alisher village, however, the questions were simpler and harder to answer: why the ambulances took so long, how the driver got away, and why labourers hired by a government scheme were sitting unprotected in the path of speeding traffic in the first place. The police have said the final death toll will be confirmed once the medical reports are in.
(Reporting based on The Statesman and India TV News.)