SC Gives States 15 Days To Transport Stranded Migrants Back Home

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the state governments to send migrant workers back to their respective native states in the next 15 days.

Hearing a PIL over the plight of migrant workers, the apex court said, “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 kinds of relief. There should be registration of the migrants.” 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the government had transported an approximate of 1 crore migrant labourers so far. “By road, 41 lakh migrant labourers have been transported and 57 lakh by train,” he said.

On May 1, the government had permitted the Railways to run Shramik Special trains to ferry only migrant workers with the consent of their home states as well as the states where they were stranded.