Declining to accept the claim of the State government that majority of migrant workers were not showing interest in going back to their States, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday said there has to be a fair and transparent method to come to such conclusion.
The government had told the court that it had sent SMS to all the migrant workers, registered in the Seva Sindhu portal for travel to their home States, assuring that Shramik special trains would be arranged for their travel.
Though separate and specific SMS were sent to migrant workers in batches of 25,000 asking them to report at designated mustering points in Bengaluru city about 24 hours prior to departure of particular special trains, only 1,000 to 3,000 migrant workers turned up for travel, the government claimed.
However, a special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice B.V. Nagarathna did not accept the claim that those registered for travel are not showing interest now merely on the basis that they did not report at the mustering centre based on the SMS.
The Bench observed that there was no guarantee that SMS had reached all. The Bench was hearing through video conference PIL petitions on issues related to COVID-19 lockdown.
Discussion on matter
Though the government, in its written statement, claimed that a majority of the migrant workers were chosen for travel based on their date of registration on the portal, the Bench pointed out that discussion on this aspect could not be found neither in the minutes of the meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary to discuss orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court nor in the circular issued based on the outcome of the meeting.
Apart from directing the government to place a fair and transparent policy to ensure that all registered migrant workers would get a chance to go back their States, the Bench also asked the government to inform what efforts are being made to send migrants from northeastern States and Union Territories like Andaman and Nicobar. The Bench also said that mustering centres will have to be set up in districts having a large number of migrant workers registered on the portal. Further hearing was adjourned till June 11.
