Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Centre for its “lackadaisical attitude” towards the welfare of migrants and issued a slew of directions to ensure relief for the unorganised workers. It was hearing a plea filed by three activists seeking welfare measures for migrant workers
All states must implement “One Nation, One Ration” scheme for migrant workers by July 31, the Supreme Court said today, underlining that the states must also “run community kitchens to feed the migrants till the end of the pandemic”.
For registration of the migrant workers, the top court has told the central government to put in place a portal by July 31. A two-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah said, “The central government must develop and put in place a portal for registering unorganised and migrant workers, and start the process, not later than July 31.”
“Lackadaisical attitude by the Ministry of Labour and Employment is unpardonable,” the court said over the delay in putting up the data.
The state governments and the UT administrations shall bring a scheme to provide dry ration to migrant workers by July 31 and such a scheme will remain till COVID situation continues, the top court said. The bench directed states and UTs to register all establishments and contractors under the Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service Act) 1979.
On May 24, the top court had said the process of registration of unorganised workers was “very slow” and had directed authorities to provide dry ration and make operational community kitchens for migrant workers stranded throughout the country. Referring to the resurgence of Covid-19 infections and consequent curbs, the activists have said in their plea that the problems faced by migrant workers during the lockdown in 2020 have persisted over the past year due to the continued economic distress, and have now got aggravated on account of fresh restrictions, curfews and lockdowns being imposed in many states to control the spread of Covid.
