Maharashtra has so far reported 77,793 positive cases of COVIID-19 and 2,710 deaths. (Representation)
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court was informed today that more than 11 Lakh migrant workers have returned to their country of origin from Maharashtra, the state most affected by COVID-19 – both in number of cases and of victims .
A bench led by judge Ashok Bhushan heard the case in which he had learned suo motu (on his own) of the plight of migrant workers stranded across the country due to the blockage of COVID-19.
The Center informed the Superior Court that about one crore of migrant workers across the country had already reached their destination – around 41 lakh by road transport and 57 lakh by train.
During the hearing, lawyers representing various states gave the figures of migrant workers that more than 11 lakh and 20.5 lakh people returned from Maharashtra and Gujarat respectively.
Maharashtra has so far reported 77,793 positive cases of COVIID-19 and 2,710 deaths. India, overall, has recorded more than 2.26 lakh cases and 6,348 pandemic deaths.
Lawyers for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh informed the court that they have so far received 28 lakh and 21.69 lakh from migrants.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the judiciary, which also includes judges S K Kaul and M R Shah, that so far 802 trains have been operated from Maharashtra to transport migrant workers.
Le banc, which heard the matter by videoconference, noted that it intended to donate 15 days to the Center and said that it had finished transporting all stranded migrant workers to their place of origin and said that he would issue his order on June 9 the problem.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, representing the government of Delhi, told the Supreme Court that about two Lakh workers are still in the national capital and only 10,000 of them have expressed their desire to return to their countries of origin.
Gujarat counsel said at the bench that out of about 22 lakhs of migrant workers in the state, 2.5 lakhs have remained while around 20.5 lakhs have already been repatriated.
Lead counsel P S Narasimha, who represented Uttar Pradesh, said that around 5.50 Lakh migrant workers were brought back to the border state of Delhi, where the buses made more than 10,000 trips.
The state government declared to the bench that 1,664 Shramik trains had been organized and that about 21.69 Lakh migrant workers had been brought back to Uttar Pradesh.
He said he had returned about 1.35 lakh migrants, who were in Uttar Pradesh, and 104 special trains have been operated for this purpose.
Bihar government counsel told the court that about 28 Lakh migrant workers have returned to the state.
The lawyer said the Bihar government was taking steps to provide them with employment and so far, a skills mapping of around 10 lakh migrants has been carried out.
Counsel representing West Bengal said that about 3.97 lakh of stranded migrants were in the state and that relief camps served about a lakh of meals.
The council said that West Bengal is more of a host state and will provide all the assistance necessary to bring people back.
Counsel representing Kerala said that about 4.34 lakh migrants were there and more than one lakh have already been transported.
The Kerala government has stated that of the rest, about 2.81 lakh migrant workers, 1.61 lakh wish to stay in the state.
When the Kerala council said the railways are under the central government and should bear the cost of returning migrants, the bench said all states must make their own arrangements.
Karnataka counsel said that as of May 3, the state has facilitated the return of more than three Lakh migrant workers and that if 15 days are allowed, they will facilitate the transportation of the rest.
The lawyer said that in the past two weeks, the number of migrant workers who wanted to leave Karnataka had decreased.
The solicitor general assured the Supreme Court that the whole country was working in tandem and that all the requests and assistance required by the states would be provided to them.
On May 28, the Supreme Court ordered that migrant workers wishing to return to their country of origin should not be charged for train or bus tickets and that stranded workers across the country should receive free food from the authorities concerned.
It adopted a series of interim instructions “examining the difficulties and miseries of migrant workers” and ordered states to simplify and speed up the process of registering migrant workers and to provide a help desk for recording at the places where they are blocked.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
