New Delhi, July 30: Odisha government did not appear at a hearing related to migration of widows in Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh in Supreme Court today.

The Supreme Court today asked the Bengal government to take steps to put a check on the migration of widows from the state to Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh.

Most of the widow migrants in Vrindavan are from Bengal and Odisha.

“This is a human problem… a very serious problem,” Justice D.K. Jain and Justice Madan B. Lokur told Bengal counsel Abhijit Sengupta. “Many of these destitutes are coming from your state or Odisha,” the judges said. Sengupta sought more time to file his reply to the court suggestion.

The court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately take steps to ameliorate the condition of the destitute women thronging to the temple towns of Vridavan and Mathura.

“Don’t wait for us to pass orders,” the judges told Uttar Pradesh counsel Pramod Swarup. “Now, at least you should want to be a progressive state,” Justice Jain said, indirectly referring to the regime change in Bengal.

A survey has found that only six per cent of the total number of widows have migrated to Mathura and Vridavan for religious reasons. The rest were all driven by economic compulsions.

Odisha is in a legal jam of sorts in the top court over a series of non-appearances in important matters.

The Odisha government recently got a firing from one bench of the Supreme Court over non-appearance of a counsel in a dispute related to Mesco. Odisha law secretary is due to appear in court on Tuesday to explain their failure to present itself in the case.

The confusion is attributed to the Odisha’s failure to name a standing counsel in the top court to deal with all its cases.

The last Odisha counsel was dismissed before the court’s summer recess. Odisha, which has five other lawyers on its panel, is yet to get its act together in the top court.