Supreme Court orders States to pay for the travel of migrant workers

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ordered not to charge the migrant workers for their travel back home. The court ordered that fare should be shared by originating and destination states and railways to be in charge of providing them food and water.

The apex court has passed this order taking serious note of migrants distress due to COVID-19 and the resultant lockdown. The Supreme Court’s order also comes as a censure of and lapses on part of both Centre and states when it comes ensuring the welfare of the migrant labourers. Significantly this order also brings in sharp focus the Opposition parties and more particularly Congress President Sonia Gandhi who launched the Speak up campaign against the Modi Government by blaming the Centre for not taking care of the migrant workers who have been forceed to return home him walking hundreds of kilometres. In some of these States, the Congress is in power or it is a ruling ally.

Close on the heels of the Supreme Court order, there was an official statement on Thursday, 28 May 2020 underscoring that Indian Railways has distributed more than 85 lakh free meals and about 1.25 crore free water bottles to nearly 50 lakh migrants travelling in Shramik Special Trains.

The number of cases under active medical supervision was 86,110 on Thursday evening. So far, a total of 67,691 people has been cured. In the last 24 hours, 3,266 patients were found cured. This takes our total recovery rate to 42.75%.

Cabinet Secretary reviewed COVID situation in 13 worst affected cities

Cabinet Secretary held a meeting with Municipal Commissioners, District Magistrates of 13 COVID-19 hit cities to take a review of the situation. Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories concerned attended the meeting.The meeting bears significance as these 13 cities are considered to be the worst Coronavirus affected locations and constitute about 70 per cent of the positive cases in the country.The 13 focus cities are Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi / New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Thane, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata / Howrah, Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Jaipur, Jodhpur, Chengalpattu and Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu).The measures taken by the officials and the staff of the municipal corporations for the management of COVID-19 cases were reviewed in the meeting.

Nirmala Sitharaman chairs 22nd Meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 22nd Meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) here today. The meeting reviewed the current global and domestic macro-economic situation, financial stability and vulnerabilities issues, major issues likely to be faced by banks and other financial institutions as also regulatory and policy responses, Liquidity / Solvency of NBFCs/HFCs/MFIs and other related issues. Besides, market volatility, domestic resource mobilisation and capital flows issues were also discussed by the Council.The Council noted that the COVID-19 Pandemic crisis poses a serious threat to the stability of the global financial system as the ultimate impact of the crisis and the timing of recovery, is uncertain at this point of time.

Indian Railways operationalizes 3543 “Shramik Special” trains till 27th May2020 (1000hrs)across the country and transports around 48 lacs passengers to their home states through “Shramik Special” trains in 26 days
As on 27th May 2020, a total of 3543 “Shramik Special” trains have been operationalized from various states across the country. On 26.05.2020, 255 Shramik Specials were originated. Till now, around 48 lacs migrants have been transported through Shramik Special Trains in 26 days.These 3543 trains were originated from various states. The top five States/UTs from where maximum trains originated are Gujarat(946 Trains), Maharashtra(677 Trains), Punjab(377Trains), Uttar Pradesh (243 Trains) and Bihar (215 Trains).These “Shramik Special” Trains were terminated in various States across the country. The top five states where maximum trains terminated are Uttar Pradesh(1392 Trains), Bihar(1123 Trains), Jharkhand(156 Trains), Madhya Pradesh(119 Trains), Odisha (123 Trains).