Three of 10 returning to villages likely to carry virus: Govt to SC
MIGRANT CRISIS Top court asks Centre to stop migration, set up portal for real-time info
NEWDELHI: The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that there is a possibility that three out of 10 migrant workers moving from cities to rural areas in the wake of the nationwide lockdown could be carrying the Sars-cov-2, the pathogen that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao was hearing through video conferencing a plea by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava seeking directions to provide food and shelter to migrants left helpless after the imposition of the lockdown.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, contended that 28 lakh people have been screened and nearly 3.5 lakh are being monitored. Mehta said according to the last census, there were about 4.14 crore persons who have migrated for work, and now a backward migration is happening due to the lockdown.
“There is a possibility of 3 out of 10 moving from cities to rural areas carrying the virus”, Mehta submitted said, insisting that so far rural India has not been affected by the pandemic.
He told the bench that nearly 22.8 lakh migrant workers have been provided food and shelter by the government after they left the cities for their native villages. Many of these were stranded, after being stopped by authorities, on the way back to villages.
The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Tuesday to prevent migration of people due to coronavirus and set up within 24 hours a portal for disseminating real time information on the pandemic to counter the panic being spread through fake news.
“Panic will destroy more lives than the virus”, the top court said and asked the Centre to get trained counsellors and community leaders of all faiths to calm down the migrants, who are kept in shelter homes across the country. The Supreme Court said these shelters should be run by volunteers and not the police, and there should be no use of force and intimidation.
It asked the Centre to prevent migration of people and take care of their needs of food, shelter, nourishment and medical aid.
The Centre told the apex court that the suggestion by a petitioner to sprinkle water and chemicals on migrants to sanitise them does not work scientifically and is not the right way.
The top court, which refused to restrain high courts from taking up the issue of migrants, said they may monitor the issue more closely. It asked the Centre to tell government lawyers to inform high courts about the orders passed by the apex court.