Eight workers enrolled in Punjab’s Viksit Bharat Guarantee Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin programme died Sunday when a speeding car ran into a roadside crew on the Lehragaga–Jakhal highway near Alisher village in Sangrur district, police and the Tribune reported. At least twelve others were injured.
The group of roughly twenty-five labourers, several of them women, had been carrying out road works when some sat along the shoulder for a water break around 5:30 p.m., according to witnesses quoted by local media. A car approaching from the Jakhal side struck a motorcycle before swerving into the workers, Sangrur superintendent of police Palwinder Cheema said.
Victims and injuries
Police identified the dead as Karamjit Kaur, Jivan Singh, Nikki, Sarabjeet Kaur, Ranjit Kaur, Karamjit, Rani Kaur, and Desh Raj, residents of Alisher and nearby villages. The injured were taken to local hospitals; deputy commissioner Poonamdeep Kaur said the district administration was coordinating medical care.
Dr. Vinod Kumar, senior medical officer at Lehragaga, told reporters that eight people reached the hospital, one of them already dead on arrival and five listed in stable condition, with two referred elsewhere for higher-level treatment. Conflicting early counts in some broadcasts reflected arrivals after the first triage wave.
Driver and vehicle
The driver abandoned a Chevrolet Magnum registered as PB11 CP 0080 at the scene and fled, police said. Officers later identified him as Darsan Singh of Raydhana village and took him into custody. The car is registered in the name of Pargat Singh of Patiala, according to the Tribune.
Investigators have opened a rash-driving and culpable-homicide case. They are reconstructing speed from skid marks and witness statements about the initial motorcycle impact.
Political response
Barinder Goyal, the Aam Aadmi Party legislator for the area, visited the site and said the injured were receiving treatment. Former MP Vijay Inder Singla of the Congress called the deaths “heartbreaking” and said workers “who toil every day to earn an honest livelihood deserve dignity, safety and protection.”
The crash revives longstanding demands from rural unions for segregated work zones and reflective barriers on state highways where MGNREGA teams routinely labour without hard shoulders. Punjab has seen repeated mass-casualty incidents involving pedestrians and scheme workers on undivided roads, though each site carries distinct police and compensation files.
What families face next
District officials said post-mortem examinations were under way Monday and that compensation claims under state disaster-relief rules would be processed once identities are confirmed. Police asked anyone with dash-camera footage from the Jakhal approach to contact Lehragaga station.
Traffic on the highway slowed for several hours while forensic teams documented the scene. Normal flow resumed overnight, but local residents placed marigold garlands along the tyre marks where the car left the pavement.
Punjab’s transport department said it would review speed-limit signage on the Lehragaga–Jakhal segment after labour unions demanded flashing beacons during scheme work. Similar reviews followed earlier crashes in other districts, though each highway segment requires a separate engineering survey.