‘Migrant workers want to return to cities’, SC told

Top court pulls up Maharashtra for filing vague affidavit; demands a fresh one

 

New Delhi(Agencies): Migrant workers—many of whom were seen marching on foot to their native places during Covid-19 lockdown—want to go back to cities for employment, the Supreme Court was told on Thursday.

 “Now the trend is migrants wish to return to cities, their place of employment. In Maharashtra migrants who wanted to leave earlier have now decided to stay back as the state opened up employment opportunities,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Maharashtra Government, told a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which had taken suo motu cognisance of migrant workers’ plight last month.

 “That is a healthy thing. This reverse migration is happening because industries are opening up. Since May 1, around 3.5 lakh workers came back to work again, Mehta said, even as the top court was not satisfied with Maharashtra Government’s affidavit.

 “You cannot say everything is fine in the state of Maharashtra and that you are providing food and transport,” the top court said.

 “You (Maharashtra) have a responsibility to find out which group of migrants is getting food etc. Your affidavit says food is being provided to all migrant workers but we think it’s far from truth. File a proper affidavit. You have treated this as an adversarial litigation,” said the Bench, which also included Justice SK Kaul and Justice MR Shah.

But the Solicitor General’s submission on reverse migration was supported by senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, representing Bihar.

 “In Bihar reverse migration is happening. Migrants want to go back to cities. Trains from Bihar to cities are full,” Kumar said.

The Bench, which had earlier ordered states to arrange sending migrant workers back to their native places, posted the matter for further hearing on July 17.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi suggested that an insurance scheme for migrant labourers should be prepared.

 “We also need a work plan and centralised system to rehabilitate the migrants and registration of migrants needd to be insisted upon,” he said.

Reiterating its June 9 order fixing a 15-day deadline for sending migrant workers back home, the Supreme Court had on June 19 asked the Centre, states and union territories to ensure compliance.

The top court had said it should be ensured that no migrant had to pay anything to reach home.

It asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to speak to all states, UTs to ensure compliance with its order and to give it due publicity.