New Delhi/May,15 : The Supreme Court Friday rejected a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to ask all District Magistrates to identify stranded migrant walking on the roads and provide shelter and food to them before ensuring their free transportation to native places. The apex court observed that it is impossible for courts to monitor or stop the movement of migrant workers across the country, and that state governments should take necessary actions in this regard. A three-judge bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta whether there was any way to stop these migrants workers from walking on the roads. To this, Mehta said states are providing inter-state transport to the migrant workers but if the people start walking on foot instead of waiting for transportation, then nothing can be done.Mehta further contended that authorities can only request these people not to start walking on foot, arguing that using any force to stop them would be counter-productive. He also told the bench, which was hearing the matter through video-conferencing, that subject to the agreement between state governments everybody would get a chance to travel to their destinations.Filing the petition, advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava referred to recent incidents of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh where migrant workers were killed in accidents on highways.“How can we stop it?” the bench, which also comprised Justices S K Kaul and B R Gavai observed, adding that states should take necessary action on these issues. The bench, which said it was not inclined to hear the plea, observed that it is impossible for the court to monitor who is walking and who is not walking.
Srivastava had filed the plea soon after the Aurangabad incident in which 16 migrant workers, who were returning to Madhya Pradesh and had slept on railway tracks, were mowed down by a goods train.
