Waive Migrants' One Way Charges Or Levy Fare From State Govt: Gujarat HC Directs Railways [Read Order]

A division bench of the Gujarat High Court on Friday pulled up the Railway authorities for levying charges for transportation of the migrant workers and directed the Railways to either waive off one way charges of the journey or to recover such amounts from the respective State Governments. In the suo motocase registered on the issue of migrant workers and spread of COVID-19 in the state of Gujarat, the High Court had sought a detailed report from the Government regarding steps taken to ameliorate the situation. In its report, the Government assured the court that no migrant worker had been denied travel to his home town on account of non-payment of travel charges. However, it was also informed that transportation charges for migrant workers were being arranged by a few host states, many NGOs and civil society organizations at the district level. Taking exception to this, the bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ilesh J Vora observed, "The report filed today and taken on record reflects that the travel charges levied for the transportation of the migrant workers, by the Railway authorities is borne by a few host States, NGOs, employers, voluntary associations. This is not done. We direct the Railway authorities to waive of one way charges of these migrant labourers or in the alternative, for the State Government to bear such charges."The Court further added :"We may only observe that the work relating to the migrant workers should continue with all its vigour. The State Government shall ensure that the migrant workers do not have to face further difficulties for the purpose of travelling to their native. The work in this regard shall continue in the right direction". The state Government took the stand that since several migrants had come to the state on their own, provisions of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen(Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979 that covered displacement allowance and journey charges did not apply to them."The provisions of the Interstate Migrant Workers Act 1979 are applicable to the registered migrant workers under the said Act. There are 7,512 workers registered under the Act. Based on the available data, there are around 22.5 lakh migrant workers across the state. Most of them have come on their own and provisions for payment of travelling allowance and displacement allowance as required by Sections 14 and 15 of the Interstate Migrant Workers Act, 1979 is not applicable to them," the government had said in the statement filed in the Court.The Government also told the Court that the States of Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had agreed to deposit travel costs with the Railways.Recently, the Karnataka High Court had pulled up the Karnataka Government for taking the stand that it cannot bear the travel cost of the migrants from other states. Following the rap from the HC, the Yediyurappa government decided to bear the rail fare of migrants. Read: 'We All Should Become Carpathia', Gujarat HC Recalls Titanic Saviour Ship To Urge People To Help Each Other In Fight Against COVID-19 Availability of Adequate Medical Facilities At Hospitals/ Quarantine Centers The bench also took note of the "distressing and painful" conditions prevailing in the Civil Hospital at Ahmedabad, which reported highest number of Corona deaths during the last eight weeks. "It is very distressing to note that most of the patients in the Civil Hospital are dying after four days or more of the treatment. This indicates complete lack of critical care," the bench remarked. The Court has thus asked if the Gujarat Government was aware that the lack of adequate number of ventilators was the cause of high mortality of patients there. Read: Is State Govt Aware That COVID-19 Patients At Ahmedabad Civil Hospital Are Dying Because Of Lack Of Ventilators? Asks Gujarat HC Inter alia, the bench issued the following directions to curb the menace of the pandemic: One ambulance with all facilities should be parked/ stationed permanently at the Hotel- quarantine centre so that if there is an emergency in the quarantine centre, the patient can immediately be rushed to the nearest hospital.The expression of interest can be called from such local physicians area wise in the state, and accordingly, a list be prepared. Such physicians can serve in the wards and hospitals and also at the quarantine centres which are overcrowded and falling within the containment zones.As per the press reports, in the State of Maharashtra, all general physicians have been asked to run their own clinics or serve in the Government COVID hospitals. The same policy should be adopted in the State of Gujarat.The Private hospitals should not demand fees in advance from the patients and the patients be asked to only give details of their Aadhar card and PAN card and if later found from the PAN card details that the patient was capable of making...

Waive Migrants' One Way Charges Or Levy Fare From State Govt: Gujarat HC Directs Railways [Read Order]

Akshita Saxena

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