UP HC asks govt what it's doing to rehabilitate migrant workers in state

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to apprise it of the state's schemes for rehabilitation of migrant workers and their families in the state.

Seeking government's say on the matter by June 1, the next date of hearing, a bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Ramesh Sinha also directed the government to apprise it of various medical facilities for migrant workers and their families to stop the COVID-19 from spreading in rural areas of the state.

"The state is also required to give a complete layout to reduce migration of the natives of Uttar Pradesh to other parts of the country to earn minimum livelihood," the bench added.

The order was passed on May 26 by the bench hearing a

lawsuit filed by two high court

lawyers, Ritesh Srivastava and Gaurav Tripathi. As far as the issue of transportation and providing food to workers, raised in the lawsuit, the bench said it is not inclined to seek any explanation on it from the state government as the Supreme Court has already taken suo moto cognisance of it. The petitioners had moved the court, through a public interest litigation, bringing to the court's notice the plight of migrant workers travelling on foot and traversing hundreds of kilometres from their work places to reach their native villages and towns. Lakhs of workers are facing joblessness and penury and a situation closer to death without any fault of their own, the petitioners submitted to the court, adding that due to non-availability of basic infrastructure for employment in the Uttar Pradesh, lakhs of people used to migrate to the other states to earn their livelihood.

Such migration is not at all wrong as the entire India is a Union but the present attitude of various state governments, where these people were working, is contrary to the spirit of the Union of India and its federal structure.