Apex court says it intends to pass such order to Centre, State Govts on June 9

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave two-week time to the Centre and the States to complete the transportation of all stranded migrant workers to their native places and fixed June 9 as the date to pronounce its order on the issue.

A Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan was hearing the matter in which it had taken suo motu cognisance on the plight of migrant workers who were stranded across the country due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Centre informed the court on Friday that around one crore migrant workers across the country have already reached their destination — around 41 lakh by road transport and 57 lakh by trains.

During the hearing, the advocates representing various States gave the figures of migrant workers as per which, over 11 lakh and 20.5 lakh people have gone back from Maharashtra and Gujarat respectively.

Counsel appearing for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh informed the SC they have so far received 28 lakh and 21.69 lakh migrants respectively.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Bench, also comprising Justices SK Kaul and MR Shah, that so far 802 trains have been operated from Maharashtra for transporting migrant workers.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, representing the Delhi Government, told the top court that around two lakh workers are still in the national Capital and only around 10,000 of them have expressed their desire to return to their native places.

The counsel appearing for Gujarat told the SC that out of around 22 lakh migrant workers in the State, 20.5 lakh have already been transported back.

Senior advocate PS Narasimha, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, said that around 5.50 lakh migrants workers were brought back into the State from Delhi borders for which buses made over 10,000 trips.

The State Government told the Bench that 1,664 Shramik trains were organised and around 21.69 lakhs migrant workers were brought back in Uttar Pradesh. It said they have sent back around 1.35 lakh migrants, who were in Uttar Pradesh, and 104 special trains were operated for this.

The counsel appearing for the Bihar Government told the court that around 28 lakh migrant workers have returned to the State. The lawyer said that the Bihar Government is taking steps to provide them employment and so far, skill mapping of around 10 lakh migrants has been done.

The counsel representing West Bengal said that around 3.97 lakh stranded migrants are in the State and relief camps were serving around one lakh meals. The counsel said that West Bengal is more of a receiving State and they will provide every assistance which is needed to bring people back.

The counsel representing Kerala said that around 4.34 lakh migrants were there and over one lakh persons have already been transported. The Kerala Government said 1.61 lakh wanted to stay put.

When Kerala’s counsel said that Railways is under the Central Government and they should take care of the cost of return by migrants, the Bench said that all States must make their own arrangements.

The counsel appearing for Karnataka said that from May 3, the State has facilitated the return of over three lakh migrant workers and if 15 days time is given they will facilitate the transportation of the rest.

The lawyer said in past two weeks, the number of migrant workers who want to go out of Karnataka has come down.

The Solicitor General assured the apex court that the entire country is working in tandem and all demands and assistance required by the States would be provided to them.

On May 28, the top court had directed that the migrant workers wanting to return to their home States will not be charged train or bus fares and those stranded across the country will be provided food free of cost by the authorities concerned.

It had passed a slew of interim directions “looking into the difficulties and miseries of migrant workers” and directed that the States shall simplify and speed up the process of registration of migrant workers and provide a help desk for registration at the places where they are stranded.