A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah took note of the submissions of the Centre and state governments on steps taken so far to mitigate the miseries of the migrant workers stranded across the country during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Ferrying migrant workers back to their states would be the largest special service by any railway network in the world in one go. Here's how the transporter manages it.
A Mumbai Police official said the actor was stopped by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) when he reached the station on Monday night to meet some labourers, and added that they have not received any complaint so far in this connection. The migrant labourers were supposed to take the Shramik Special train from Bandra Terminus to Uttar Pradesh.
The death triggered panic in the compartment with people suspecting that Parihar might have died due to COVID-19 and the co-passengers might contract the disease, police said.
Migrants are no longer sure if they would be able to live by Modi's mantra of "Jaan Bhi Jahaan Bhi".
'They say government is doing so much but ham to ab bhi yahi hain'
Around 275,000 migrant labourers and their family members have returned to the state. According to the state government, this number could exceed 1 million by the end of this month. As the NDA government in Bihar is scheduled to face polls at the end of this year, providing livelihoods to these people is on the top Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's agenda.
The migrants were ferried to their villages in sanitised buses arranged by the Jharkhand government to take them home after preliminary medical screening at the station, officials said.
He said though the Bharatiya Janata Party wants to expand its influence in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state, its goal is to rid West Bengal of the 'environment of terror'. "Bengal is the only state in the entire country where the culture of political violence is flourishing," he told the BJP's virtual 'Jan Samvad' rally.
Sharif Hashmi was traveling with her husband Haseen Hashmi along with her four-month-old child in a Shramik Special train from Belgaum to Gorakhpur on May 31. Her baby was crying as she did not get milk at any previous station. She asked help from the constable, the statement said. Yadav immediately bought a packet of milk from a shop outside the Bhopal Railway Station, but the train started moving.
For many the resumption of trains is a big boon, but some say it doesn't come without confusion and worries
Many of the tragedies occurred in the dark, which is when it is cooler to walk, and many people were caught in their sleep. The combination of no traffic and speeding vehicles has led to havoc, endangering the lives of those who found themselves without work or money in the coronavirus-induced lockdown and were frantic to get home, any which way.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 53,946, while 34,108 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said on Monday the railways has subsidised 85 per cent of ticket fare for special trains being run to transport migrant workers and the state government has to pay the remaining 15 per cent, soon after the Congress attacked the central government over the issue.
Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.
To capture the information regarding movement of migrants and facilitate the smooth movement of stranded persons across the states, National Disaster Management Authority has developed an online dashboard namely, National Migrant Information System, on the existing NDMA-GIS portal
Kumar had registered for the Shramik Special train. Everyday, he hoped his phone will ring and he will be asked to come to the station. But, only his landlord's call came everyday asking when he would pay the due rent. Dejected with the wait, Kumar decided to go to the Gurgaon Railway Station where he was refused an entry.
As the mother still lay still, he wobbles away from her, announcements continuing in the background about the arrival and departure of trains that would bring in tens of thousands of people in a rush to get away from hunger and hardship they face in large cities that could sustain them no more.
Two days before the end of the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced a slew of relaxations, including reopening of shrines from June 1.
The migrants said that they prefer trucks and tempos to go back to their native places as the trucks drop them close to their villages, while buses drop them only till the state border, from where they have to find another mode of transport to reach home.
All special trains -- 15 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs of mail/express trains operating since June 1 -- will continue.
The apex court, which passed interim directions, said all migrant workers who are stranded at various places shall be provided food by concerned states and Union Territories (UTs) at places which shall be publicised and notified to them for the period they are waiting for their turn to board a train or a bus.
It said it will also allow reservation of reserved tickets from common service centres (CSC) and through ticketing agents with effect from Friday. The zonal railways have been instructed to decide and notify opening of reservation counters as per local needs and conditions, the order stated.
A day after opposition parties, including the Congress launched a scathing attack against the Union government and the railways for charging money from migrants for the travel, sources in the railways said the national transporter is spending around Rs 80 lakh per service for the special trains, and it has run 67 such trains carrying around 67,000 stranded migrants since May 1--- incurring an expenditure of over Rs 50 crore.
Their dreams of returning home finally taking wing after two months of lockdown, 10 migrant workers are flying to Bihar thanks to their employer, a Delhi farmer, who bought their plane tickets. Their flight to the Bihar capital Patna is at 6 am on Thursday and the men, who planned to go home in April, can't believe they are going to their villages in Samastipur -- not walking or cycling thousands of kilometres, or scrambling for a seat on a bus or train, but on a plane.
"Over 5.42 lakh migrants were screened by health workers and among them 1,230 have been found positive for coronavirus. Samples of 46,142 have been sent for testing," said Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad in Lucknow.
The first two coaches that rolled out from the Railway Coach Factory in Kapurthala also have fixtures coated with titanium dioxide and the provision for plasma air equipment in AC ducts to sterilise interiors using ionised air. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also indicated that the new coaches could be the new normal.
'Our train was moving in all the wrong directions and went to Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha'
The Unlock 3 guidelines will come into force from August 1 and strict enforcement of lockdown in containment zones will continue till August 31.
'It will take a long time for people's memory to be misled by a prime minister who is so arrogant and who refuses to acknowledge his own faults.'
Kejriwal said there will be no restrictions on the number of people travelling in four-wheelers, two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws and other vehicles in the city. He said that until now, shops in markets were being allowed to open on odd-even basis, adding that there are no such restrictions mentioned by the Centre in its latest guidelines.
The RJD leader was moved by the latter's tale of grief and loss and made his photo the profile picture on his official Twitter handle. He also shared the footage of his interaction with the hapless man.
The family of nine, Mukesh, his parents, wife and five children, the youngest less than a year old, set out from their 'home' under a flyover in Palam in southwest Delhi on the long walk to their village. While he pushed the cycle, the others walked alongside, some holding bags, others unwieldy bundles on their heads, some barefeet as they walked on the hot tarred road under a scorching sun and others wearing flimsy footwear.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 61,149, while 42,297 people have recovered and one patient has migrated.
Shah attacked Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons".
The key factor in deciding the 80 new trains was the fact that there were many stations from where the migrant workers are going back to their workplace.
Termed 'Unlock 1', the Centre on Saturday issued fresh guidelines relaxing the nationwide lockdown, the fourth phase of which ends on May 31.
"I have only Rs 200 left with me. I have not even got the refund for the cancelled ticket. We don't have agricultural land back home. I know it will be hard there, but I will be with my family. I am happy having 'roti and chutney' with them," says Jitendra Mahto, a migrant.
Rampukar Pandit, whose mournful face became emblematic of the tragedy faced by poor migrants currently, is currently in hospital, but all he wishes is to return home.
Passengers who are disallowed from travelling on trains because of symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus will also receive full refund for their tickets, the railways has said.
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