The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the state and centre governments to not charge travel fares from migrant workers travelling to their native places. “No fare, either by train or bus, shall be charged for migrant workers. Railway fare to be shared by states,” the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
Further, the apex court also issued a slew of interim directions to mitigate the miseries of the migrant workers on the roads.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.K. Kaul and M R Shah asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, about the confusion over the payment of travel fare of stranded migrant workers and said that they should not made to pay for their journey back home.
Five Key points on Supreme Court’s Interim order:
- The migrant workers shall be provided food by the concerned state and UT at places which shall be publicised and notified for the period that they are waiting for their turn.
- There will be no fare for train or bus for migrant workers. The fare will be shared by the states.
- During the journey via train, the originating states will provide meal and water. The railways will provide meal and water onboard the train. Food and water to also be provided in buses.
- States shall oversee the registration of migrants & states to ensure that after registration, they are made to board transport as early as possible.
- Those migrant workers found walking on the roads, immediately should be taken to shelters and provided food and all facilities.
The court asked some searching questions from the Centre on the plight of migrant workers ranging from as to how long they will have to wait before going to their native places to who will pay for their travel and provide them food and shelter.
“What is the normal time? If a migrant is identified, there must be some certainty that he will be shifted out within one week or ten days at most? What is that time? There had been instances where one state sends migrants but at the border another State says we are not accepting the migrants. We need a policy on this,” the bench told Mehta.
The bench, questioning him over the travel-fare for the migrants, said: In our country, the middlemen will always be there. But we don’t want middlemen to interfere when it comes to payment of fares. There has to be a clear policy as to who will pay for their travel.”
