Union government opens job avenues for migrant workers

New Delhi: The Union government on Sunday opened an employment avenue for migrant labourers in states where they are stranded, while also making it clear that they will not have permission for interstate travel during the lockdown being implemented to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said that labourers, who are stranded in different parts of the country due to the ongoing lockdown, will be, however, allowed to go to their respective places of work within the state with certain conditions.

As the government allowed limited activities, stranded labourers could be engaged in "industrial, manufacturing, construction, farming and MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) works", he said.

Thousands of migrant labourers walking on India's streets to reach their hometowns hundreds of miles away emerged as a symbolic image of the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 during its initial days.