New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and state governments to send all the migrant workers to their native places within 15 days and formulate employment schemes after conducting their skill mapping to rehabilitate them.A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.R. Shah also directed the Centre to provide additional trains within 24 hours of states making the demand for sending the migrant workers back to their native places.The top court also directed authorities to consider withdrawing all cases against migrant workers for alleged violation of lockdown norms under the Disaster Management Act.The bench also directed the authorities to identify and register migrant workers who want to go back to their native places and conclude the exercise, including their transportation within 15 days from Tuesday.The bench, which posted the matter for further hearing in July, said the schemes for welfare and employment of migrant workers should be publicised adequately.This order comes at a time when lockdown restrictions have been eased in large parts of the country, outside of containment zones, and businesses and industry have begun to reopen.Also read: Workers Who Fled Punjab Weeks Ago Are Now Flown, Bussed Back by Industrialists, FarmersThe top court had on June 5 reserved its order on the suo motu case registered on the plights of migrant workers during the coronavirus-triggered lockdown period. On May 28, the court ordered states not to charge migrant workers who were availing of the Shramik special trains. The court also directed states and union territories to arrange food for migrant workers wherever they are.This case heard after months of inaction on the part of the Supreme Court, even as news of migrant workers’ plight was everywhere to see. Hundreds of workers have died in their attempts to reach home ever since the lockdown was first announced in March. Workers across the country were left with no choice but to walk or cycle home, with no transport being made available for the the first two months of the lockdown and no alternate means of livelihood or survival being announced.Earlier, at the end of March, the Supreme Court had refused to hear a PIL filed by Alakh Alok Srivastava, a practicing lawyer, on the plight of migrant workers and had accepted the Centre’s submission that enough was being done for them.Also read: Yogi’s Office Promised ‘1000 Buses’, Yet MHA Blames ‘Fake Media Reports’ for Delhi CrowdThe court’s actions on the matter over the last few months have been criticised from within the legal community as well. Writing in The Wire, retired Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur said the court deserved an ‘F’ grade:“Given the circumstances, was it not the constitutional obligation, not duty, of the Supreme Court – a court for the people of India and not a court of the people of India – to ascertain that a few lakhs (not thousands) of migrants are well taken care of, physically and emotionally? It is not that the court was expected to disbelieve or distrust the establishment represented by no less than the solicitor general, the court was only required to ensure through the principle of continuing mandamus that the solemn assurances given to it are faithfully carried out. Sorry, the court completely failed in this – forgot what public interest litigation is all about. If a grading is to be given, it deserves an F.”(With PTI inputs)