A huge amount of workers are migrating to their hometown due to the ongoing lockdown due to COVID-19. But what is coming out to be more problematic than the virus itself is the management of workers. Every state is showing concern regarding this problem as all the states have sealed their boundaries.
Workers are suffering more than ever due to this pandemic and TMC MP (WB) Mahua Moitra wrote a letter to the CJI highlighting the plight of the migrant workers amid COVID-19 pandemic.
This case will be heard by a bench comprising Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Deepak Gupta.
In her letter, she stated that she had received over 300 requested from the stranded workers of her area from places like Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Delhi, Gurgaon etc.
She said that "These poor workers, some of them employed at construction sites and others in factories, are thousands of kilometres away from their homes and live in extreme penury."
She further requested the SC judges "Given the loss of life involved and the terrible hardships being faced by these poor workers, I beseech your lordships to urgently take up the matter and issue appropriate direction to the Government of India and private employers."
She also asked the government to advice the Executive Agencies to make arrangements for the stranded workers and to give them wages and free ration food and shelter during this time.
The letter also read that "My lords, these workers are the poorest of the poor and they subsist on daily wages. Unless a serious and immediate intervention is made by the executive agencies, thousands will perish from starvation and lakhs will be put to the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 virus."
Before this letter, a bench comprises CJI Bobde issued some directions regarding this while reading a PIL for the welfare of migrant workers.
