Making it clear that uncertainty and delay in arranging Shramik Special trains should not discourage migrant workers registered through Seva Sindhu portal from travelling to their home States, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to submit data of such registered migrant workers who have now decided against their wish to return to their home States.
The court also directed the State government to submit the number of district-wise migrant workers registered through the portal for travel to their home States, along with the number of requests received for travel to different States.
A special Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice B.V. Nagarathna, issued the direction while hearing through videoconference the PIL petitions related to issues that cropped up owing to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The State government has also been directed to submit the number of migrant workers who already travelled in special trains to different States and requests made to Railways to arrange special trains, and efforts made to allow migrant workers, who were not in a position to use Seva Sindhu portal for lack of knowledge of the Internet.
While directing the government to state whether any communications have been issued to the migrant workers through NGOs and unions about outer limit of date of their travel, the Bench also directed the union and NGOs to provide the list of migrant workers that is available with them to the State to enable their transportation.
Earlier, Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, who personally appeared through videoconference, said that the government decided to pay the train fares of migrant workers till May 31 and it has sent SMS to all the registered migrant workers to indicate their willingness to travel and their destination in reply to the SMS.
Beyond May 31
To a query of the Bench about whether the State government would pay the train fares beyond May 31, if the transportation of all registered migrant workers could not be completed by then, the Chief Secretary said that the issue would be look into.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the Union government to give an assurance that Shramik Special trains would be made available even after May 31 depending upon the requirement of the State.
Earlier it was told to the Bench that approximately around 7 lakh persons registered for travel to their home States through the Seva Sindhu portal and around 3 lakh have left for their home States through special trains.
