BSP welcomes SC's order on stranded migrants not being charged for travel
May 28, 2020
New Delhi [India], May 29 : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court's order that no travel fare would be charged from migrant workers for their travel back home amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
BSP national spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria said that fares should not be charged from migrant workers who are heading back home.
"I welcome the Supreme Court's order that the migrant workers should be given relief. They should not be charged for travelling back to their homes. They should be given other facilities but this order has come too late. This should have come at the beginning when we saw at the ISBT in Delhi that thousands of workers were wanting to return home after the lockdown was announced," Bhadoria told ANI.
"Many people have lost their lives. I think this has been a black period in Indian independence history. This will be remembered. This order has come. We welcome it, but it is too little too late," he said.
The Supreme Court directed that no fare, either for train or bus, shall be charged from migrant workers and the same shall be shared by the states. It observed that the originating state shall provide meal and water at the station.
"The state shall oversee the registration of migrant workers and the state to ensure that after registration, they are made to board the train or bus at an early date. All necessary details regarding the number of migrants, plan for transportation mechanism of registration and other details should be brought on record in the reply," the court observed.
The top court ruled that due to the short time available, the states and the Centre could not file a complete report on the matter and some states had not even filed any reply.
