The conditions of six of these migrants is reported to be critical. Those seriously injured have been referred to Prayagraj. Police has also informed the affected migrants' families of the mishap.

At least 22 migrant labourers, who had returned from Andhra Pradesh, escaped from a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said on Friday.

The accident left 16 migrant workers dead and one injured while three others survived. All of them were working in a steel manufacturing in Jalna.

Sixteen workers were killed on Friday morning after they stopped for rest on the railway tracks in Aurangabad. They had walked 45 km from Jalna to Aurangabad, and were going towards Bhusawal, another 120 km, on foot in hopes of catching a train.

The crowding of workers at the railway station is learnt to be prompted by a social media post which went viral giving false information that free special trains have been arranged for workers, sources said.

On learning about the sudden rush of people at the deputy collector's office near Gota bridge, police officials immediately reached the spot and persuaded the migrants, mostly from UP and Bihar, to disperse.

Two men were arrested and two privately-operated buses impounded during the police action around 1.30 am on a Noida-Greater Noida road.

The high court, in its interim order passed on Thursday, had suggested the state should ensure that only those who have tested negative for COVID-19 are allowed to return.

Officers have been directed to submit a detailed report within four weeks with details of the steps taken by the district authorities to provide food and shelter to poor people, especially migrants, during the lockdown.

While the opposition Congress claimed that accused Rajesh Verma is a BJP worker, the ruling party denied it.

A police team rushed to the quarantine centre and launched an inquiry into the death of the migrant worker while the body was sent for post-mortem.

The Railways also warned people that although regular passenger trains were not in operation, the migrant special trains, parcel and freight trains were running on the rail network.

Ashif Sheikh, who runs a group that works for the rights of excluded communities, said one needs industry, investors, labour unions, civil society members and labour department officials to work together to solve the problem.

The charge of provocation to cause riots has been levelled against the workers allegedly for helping the migrant workers.

Contrary to the claims that the migrants are not being asked to pay train fares, the labourers were not just made to bear the cost of travel but also overcharged.

The Indian Railways reaction came minutes after the TMC said they planned to run eight trains to ferry migrants from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Telangana over the next three days.

'Eleven trains carrying people from other states have already reached Madhya Pradesh and 10 more are coming on Saturday,' Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.

The national transporter has planned to operate 47 trains on Saturday, out of which 34 trains have already departed, officials said.

The workers started arriving at the bridge from the Delhi side on Friday afternoon and wanted to go home at the earliest, officials said.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said over 1.5 lakh migrant workers have applied on the government portal, expressing their willingness to return back to work in the state

The labourers, working in a steel factory in Jalna, left for their home in Madhya Pradesh on foot. Exhausted, they slept on the tracks near Karmad, not knowing that traffic of goods trains had not ceased despite lockdown.

The Hyderabad MP alleged that the lockdown was announced in an unplanned manner without providing relief to migrant labourers from states, including Bihar, UP, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

In the country as per estimates 44 crore people work in the unorganised sector in different places in the country and during the initial period of the lockdown people are seen walking to their native places.

Gehlot raised the issue during his telephonic talk with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday and sought smooth movement of migrant workers, including those from Rajasthan, stranded in various parts of the country.

Chowdhury said that a large portion of the migrant labourers are from the minority community and urged that the government feed these people during the month of Ramadan owing to their hapless condition.

Without taking any names, the Sena said it feared that some people in Maharashtra would "instigate" the migrant labourers for their petty political gains.

Indian government decided to allow migrant workers, tourists, students stranded in different parts of the country to move to their respective destinations.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that only two days ago, a "tughlaqi farmaan" was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs "which is very quaint and funny".

A couple of stinging tweets appeared during the day on the official Twitter handle of the ailing septuagenarian, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases in Ranchi.

In a damage control exercise, state chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday directed the KSRTC to charge only single fare for ferrying the migrant labourers.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav questioned the significance of showering flowers from aeroplanes when there are reports of mismanagement in various quarantine centres.

Earlier this week that the state government opened a website and by now 3.98 lakh Keralites in 201 countries, and 1.38 lakh Keralaites within the country have registered from various states, wanting to return.

Sonia Gandhi said that the Congress party had asked for provision of free rail travel for migrant workers to their home-towns, but their demands had been ignored by the Centre.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said Congress are working out the modalities to ensure that every worker and migrant stranded reaches home safely.

Sources also say that senior Congress leaders like Bhupinder Hooda, Kumari Selja, Ashok Gehlot among other have been asked to mobilise funds for the mission.

The CM said Students' fares were being paid directly by his government to the railways, while migrant workers will be reimbursed the entire expenses they incurred on the journey once they have completed their 21-day quarantine after reaching Bihar.

A controversy had erupted on Monday after several opposition parties demanded that migrant workers should not be charged for the train tickets.

The Congress on Monday had said its state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrant workers stranded at their workplaces due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The Congress said the decision to go back or stay in the state should be with the labourers and not the government, with the former being free to choose health or work.

Special Shramik train arrived at the Amethi Railway station on Thursday with 1,212 Uttar Pradesh migrant workers on board, out of which 282 belonged to Amethi.

However, Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat also alleged that along with Gujarat, states of Odisha, Karnataka and West Bengal have, too, denied migrant workers from their states to return.

Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district on Friday.

As most of the states are yet to respond on the matter of bearing the travel costs of the stranded workers, the Delhi government has decided to bear the cost to avoid any further inconvenience to these people, a statement said.

Union home minister Amit Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is 'injustice' to the migrant workers from the state.

Union Home Minister Shah, in a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said the West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrant workers to reach the state that may further create hardship for the labourers.

The newspaper, Saamana, however, did not make it clear whether it blamed the BJP-led Centre or the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government for the tragedy.

Pawar spoke over phone to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the issue of repatriation of migrant workers to their home states during the lokdown period.

The JDU, headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accused the AAP of resorting to "cheap politics to gain popularity" as the Arvind Kejriwal government has sought reimbursement of the payment.

Migrant camps were "very prone" to spreading the disease, IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino told reporters in an online briefing.