New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the state of Maharashtra to file an additional affidavit in the court clarifying its position on the stranded migrants. The court said that though as per the state government's filed affidavit, food is being provided to all the workers, it thinks that it is far from the truth.
"File a proper affidavit. You have treated this is as an adversarial litigation," said the top court to Maharashtra today. Adding on further it said that the state can not claim of everything being fine and it is providing food and transportation to all.
The bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan was hearing a suo moto case on miseries of migrants affected due to the lockdown. In the last hearing of the case, the court had asked the governments to comply with its orders directing free transportation, provision of food and employment to the migrants. There were petitions seeking similar demands by Medha Patekar, Centre for Public Interest Litigation(CPIL) and Nichiketa Vajpayee. PIL by CPIL was adjourned for hearing next week.
Today Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Maharashtra government informed the court that the migrants who wanted to leave earlier have now decided to stay back as the state has opened up employment opportunities. From 1st of May, around 3,50,000 workers have come back to work again as those who went are not getting jobs as per their skills, a carpenter can not work as a labourer in agricultural fields, added Mehta.
In case of Bihar, it was informed to the court by its advocate Ranjit Kumar that reverse migration is happening in the state and trains going to the cities are full.
Judges asked the states who have not filed an affidavit to file it and adjourned the case for hearing again next week on 17th July.
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