SC proposes states to transport remaining migrants within 15 days, order reserved

In a major decision, the Supreme Court, on Friday, has suggested that states be given 15 days time to transport all migrants back home via 'Shramik' special trains while hearing a plea on the migrant crisis. The Centre - represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has filed an affidavit stating that till June 3, Indian railways has run 4228 special trains transporting approximately 1 crore migrants back home. The verdict in this hearing has been reserved for June 9.

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SC: '15 days can be granted to states to transport all migrants'

The 3-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah have highlighted the need to register all migrants specifically state and district wise for the same. The judges have also stated that every village should know how many migrants have come from where so that employment regeneration schemes can be started. The apex court has also allowed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)'s intervention in the cases and will be directing the Centre to monitor if states are following minimum standard for food, water etc. given to the migrants.

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Centre's arguments

Mehta has stated that the Centre has received a  requirement for 171 additional trains, with many trains returning empty as many migrants are joining industries again. He added that Railways is providing trains within 24 hours of their request and that Maharashtra had been provided 800 trains, Uttar Pradesh - 1695 trains etc. He also asked the NHRC to await the reply of Railways regarding the migrants travel fare, rather than moving the SC, but did not object to NHRC's intervention.

The Centre has also objected to the decentralization of the registration process, to avoid fighting of people over trains. Mehta also requested that the present system be allowed to continue to transport remaining 10% stranded migrants. The Centre has also welcomed the help of NLSIU Alumni in transporting the migrants.

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States arguments and demands 

• Maharashtra: There are only 38,000 migrants remaining and we need only one more. Normal trains are also starting now.
• Gujarat: For Gujarat, out of 23 lacs, 2.5 lacs remain as they want to work. Over 20 lacs have already been transported.
• Delhi: Now 2 lakh workers remain to be transported. There were 6 lakh registration, some registrations were multiple and some have started working as construction started
• UP: Ee received 21 lakh 69 thousand workers from across India.  .. over 5 lakh migrant workers were brought inside the state from Delhi itself
• Bihar: We have received 28 lakh people from all across India. We have 54 centres in 13 cities and 9 states and we have no information from any of these places about how many are still stranded
• Bengal: We have another 6 lakh migrant workers to reach us and need 17 trains
• Madhya Pradesh: Only 25,000 migrants are yet to come back. 
• Rajasthan: we have received over 13 lakh migrants who have come back. 
• Kerala: There were 4 lakh 34 thousand migrants. Over 1 lakh we have transported. Balance is 2.81 lakh. Out of this, 1.61 wanted to stay in Kerala.
• Karnataka: we have facilitated the travel of about 3,67,000 migrants from the state. One lakh people had registered for yesterday but 100 turned up

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Stranded migrants issue

After PM Modi had announced the first phase of lockdown, on March 28, thousands of migrant workers were seen thronging the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Delhi's Anand Vihar Interstate Bus Terminal in the hope of reaching their homes, defying lockdown and creating a health hazard. Similarly, after PM Modi announced the extension of the lockdown till May 3, on April 14, around 2,000 migrant workers gathered at Bandra station, under the illusion of boarding 'Jansdharan Express' trains to UP, Bengal and Bihar. Apart from this several visuals have been seen of thousands of migrants walking across state borders to reach their native homes due to loss of income amid lockdown.

Several notable accidents too have occurred killing over a hundred such on-foot travelling migrants. due to lorries colliding, buses overturning etc. The 'Shramik' special trains were started on May 1 as many migrants began travelling back home on foot from cities, due to job loss amid India's extended lockdown. Centre claims 90% of these stranded migrants have been transported back home.