Migration needs to stop to contain spread of COVID-19: SG Tushar Mehta tells Supreme Court

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta today told the Supreme Court that the mass migration of workers from cities to their native places needs to stop in order to prevent the further transmission of COVID-19. .This submission came when the Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao took up a PIL filed by one Rashmi Bansal for hearing via video conferencing. This PIL sought directions for sanitizing and disinfecting migrant workers before their travel to their native places..The Court said that the Centre is already taking steps to address the issue and will file a comprehensive report by Tuesday, March 31 on the measures taken to mitigate the looming humanitarian crisis. In light of the same, the Court said that it does not want to add to the confusion by passing directions..Coronavirus Lockdown effect on migrant workers: Centre to file affidavit on steps taken to mitigate crisis by Tuesday.SG Tushar Mehta at this point said that the migration needs to stop in order to contain further spread of the Coronavirus. He said that the message should not go out that the process of migration is being smoothened, and that the process of migration needs to stop for now.."This migration needs to be stopped because if there is transmission of the virus, it will be unstoppable."SG Tushar Mehta to Supreme Court.The status report as regards all the steps taken by the Centre will be filed by tomorrow. The Court will take up the matters pertaining to the exodus of migrant workers in view of the nationwide Coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday, March 31..In her petition, Bansal has prayed that all migrant workers be allowed to travel from the metro cities only after being sanitized and disinfected to reduce the possibility of spreading the novel Coronavirus..The petition had sought directions for the Centre and the state to ensure that the workers who have flocked at bus stations waiting to be ferried to their native places are sanitized and disinfected ahead of starting their journey..Adiditionally, a direction for state governments to take steps to stop the exodus and to ensure that the workers are allowed to move to cities only after being disinfected, has also been sought..The announcement made by the Prime Minister on March 24 of the 21 day nationwide lockdown has led to a humanitarian crisis with a large number of migrant workers now looking for ways to reach their native places. With no income and no place to stay, these workers have been forced to make long journeys back home..Large groups of such workers had initially taken to foot to complete their long journeys. However, with different state governments springing to action, bus ferries have been arranged for to bring these workers back..The situation is particularly bad in Delhi, where bus stations are flocked with droves of people waiting to board buses back to Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, among other states.."Since these laborers are thousands and lakh in numbers and are desperate to reach to their villages, they are not taking proper precautions and maintaining social distancing, thus increasing the threat of spreading virus to villages as many of them may be infected with virus and thus may have become the carrier of the disease."Petition filed by Rashmi Bansal.Read Order: