New Delhi, March 30

Amid mass exodus of migrant workers from various cities across India following the 21-day nationwide lockdown declared in view of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Supreme Court on Monday said panic and fear were becoming a bigger problem than the pandemic.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao adjourned the matter to Tuesday after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Centre would like to file a status report on the steps taken to deal with the situation.

Asserting that migration needed to be stopped to prevent the spread of the pandemic, Mehta said both Central and state governments were taking steps to deal with the situation.

“This fear and panic is a bigger problem than this virus…We are not going to add to the confusion by issuing directions on measures which are already being taken by the government,” the Bench said. “We would not deal with the things, which the government is already doing. We would like to wait for the report of Centre,” it said. Separate petitions filed by Alakh Alok Srivastava and Rashmi Bansal demanded relief for migrant workers headed to their native places. — TNS