SC: Will give 15 days to send all guest workers

What we intend to do is we will give you and the states 15 days’ time to transport all migrants. All states will bring on record how they will provide employment and other kind of relief. — SC SC order on stranded migrants Tuesday

New Delhi, June 5: The Supreme Court Friday said it intends to give 15 days to the Centre and states for transporting all stranded guest workers to their native places and will pronounce its order on June 9 on the issue including their registration and employment opportunities.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.K. Kaul and M.R. Shah took note of the submissions of the Centre and state governments on steps taken so far to mitigate the miseries of the migrant workers stranded across the country during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The bench, hearing the matter via video conferencing, said it intends to give 15 days to the Centre and all the state to transport the migrant workers and to develop a mechanism for their registration and providing them employment opportunities.

The top court was informed by solicitor general Tushar Mehta that till June 3, over 4,200 “Shramik Special” trains have been deployed to transport migrant workers to their native places.

Mr Mehta said that till now over one crore migrant workers have been transported to their destinations through trains and buses.

Additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain, who was representing the Delhi government, told the court that around 2 lakh workers are still in Delhi. He said, “They are choosing not to go back. Less than 10,000 workers have expressed desire to go back to their native places”.

The hearing comes days after the top court took suo moto cognisance of the issue and passed several orders to facilitate migrants’ return home.