Mumbai: The West Bengal government has been changing its position on the issue of migrants from time-to-time and has not handled the issue properly, observed the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. The HC also took into account the fact that the last special Shramik train left with very few migrants on board and thus refused to issue any directive to the Maharashtra government to run more such trains.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Anuja Prabhudesai was hearing a PIL filed by a trade union through senior counsel Gayatri Singh, claiming that thousands of migrants are still wanting to go back to their hometowns but the Maharashtra government is not providing special Shramik trains for them.
While addressing the bench through video conferencing, Singh told the judges that most of the migrants, who are in her contact, are from West Bengal and still want to go back to their hometowns.
At this, CJ Datta, who is also from West Bengal, said that there were many migrants who were not solely relying upon the state government there and were making their own arrangements to go back home. The CJ shared an experience of a few migrants from West Bengal, who were stuck in Raigad district here and were sent back in a bus, for which they paid for the tickets.
"This was done as there were no special trains and the government too refused to allow them in," said Ronita Bhattacharya, the counsel, who assisted Singh.
While speaking about the situation in West Bengal, CJ Datta said, "The government there has been changing its position on this issue from time-to-time. At one point of time, it had even refused to allow migrants to return to their hometowns in the state."
"I personally do not want to say anything against anyone but the government there did not handle the situation properly," CJ Datta remarked in a passing observation.
Meanwhile, advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the judges that the last special Shramik train left the state with a very few migrants.
Having heard the submission, the judges noted that the Supreme Court had recently slammed the Maharashtra government for being reluctant to identify migrants to be sent back to their hometowns.
"We do not consider it appropriate to pass any order at this stage for facilitating movement of alleged stranded migrant labours to West Bengal, as prayed in the plea," CJ Datta said while adjourning the matter.
