[COVID-19 migrants case] We are inclined to direct setting up of community kitchens and transportation of willing migrant workers: Supreme Court

In the suo motu case concerning the COVID-19 migrant crisis, the Supreme Court today stated that it will direct Delhi NCR authorities to set up community kitchens for migrant workers and ensure reasonable transport fares for those labourers looking to travel back home. .The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah passed the order while hearing a plea by activists Harsh Mander, Anjali Bhardwaj and Jagdeep Chhokar, who moved an urgent application before the Supreme Court seeking directions to ensure that migrant workers are not deprived of ration and food security and are able to travel back to their homes at nominal cost..Appearing for the applicants, Advocate Prashant Bhushan stressed on extending the Atmanirbhar scheme for migrants so that eight crore identified migrant workers can be given rations without needing to produce ration cards. It was also prayed that the workers be given cooked food..Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central government, urged the Court to not pass directions before perusing the replies from states. He added that elected state governments "were more responsible than the petitioners who were not abreast with the ground situation" while drafting the plea "from the comfort of their drawing rooms."."Now we are fighting with pandemic, so let us fight with the pandemic and not with fringe elements. Unlike last lockdown, the construction work is going on and industrial work is going on. Last time, everything was closed. All state governments are alive to the situation. Except two or three individuals, it cannot be said that all state governments are not irresponsible," said SG Mehta. .However, the Bench clarified that its directions will be specific to Delhi NCR, considering the fact that migrant workers were being charged exorbitantly to travel back to their native places. .On the issue of food security, Justice Bhushan said,"What about community kitchens? The migrants who do not have food to eat...If the case is heard after 10 days, then what will happen in the interim? These directions will now be for only Delhi NCR. We are inclined to direct setting up of community kitchens and transportation of willing migrant workers.".Justice Shah noted that directions passed in last year's suo motu migrant crisis case were still not adhered to. ."We cannot make this plea infructuous. Last year, we issued directions on June 9 and July 31 and registration of the migrant workers had to be completed. We may issue directions to clarify to some state government as to what has been done. It has been a year but nothing was done. We don't want all states to be here and be a mess. We will confine to only 6 to 7 states like UP, Bihar, Gujarat etc and call upon them to file the replies," he said..The applicants contended that even though states have been imposing decentralised COVID-19 curfews and lockdowns more cautiously this year, "they have offered little welfare support to working classes and migrants whose livelihoods are at sea once again.""This has triggered a second exodus of migrant workers who are flocking train and bus terminals in urban centres in a bid to get back home," the application stated..Also sought were directions to the Central government to resume its scheme of providing dry rations under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Scheme to all 8 crore migrant labourers who are not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) or State PDS cards and were identified under the said scheme last year..The application stated that the scheme was started last year after the migrant crisis escalated, but was kept operational only for two months till June, 2020, and was discontinued thereafter..The activists thus urged the top court to direct the Central and the state governments to provide free cooked food through networks of community kitchens, hunger relief and feeding centres, especially at places where distressed migrant workers are congregating. These include industrial areas, homeless shelters, bus stations, train stations and other areas..Further, the applicants submitted that the Central and state governments should provide transport to such migrant labourers by bus and rail at nominal fares, while ensuring adherence to COVID-19 protocol.It also sought the indulgence of the Court to direct the Central and state governments to jointly and severally ensure cash transfers equivalent to the notified minimum wage of different states to all migrant workers during the period of lockdown.."The new restrictions and curfews/lockdowns imposed by governments to curb the spread of the second wave of COVID-l9 has caused immense distress in the lives of the economically vulnerable sections of society, especially migrant workers. Across several states, migrant workers, having lost their means of livelihood on account of the restrictions imposed, are unable to sustain themselves and there is large scale distress migration back to their hometowns," reads the application..[Read an account of today's hearing]