DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Stranded away from their homes and having exhausted their meagre savings, migrant labourers in Punjab are eager to return to the familiar environs of their native places now that the Centre has allowed their movement. Lakhs of migrant labourers have been stranded across the country for over a month as the Centre imposed a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus on March 25, ordering people indoors and restricting inter-state travel, among other curbs. Shortly after the announcement of the lockdown, as thousands of anxious labourers set out on foot from cities to their homes, governments across states set up shelters for them and have been providing them food and other necessities. According to officials, there are nearly 10 lakh migrant labourers in Punjab. Approximately 70 per cent of these are from Bihar. Building contractor Bhagvat Yadav, a native of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, on Thursday said around 45 people, including labourers and masons, are working with him and all of them want to go back home. They are out of work as most construction work has been halted. Even though the government has allowed construction activities, people do not have the capacity to pay, he said in Amritsar. Yadav claimed around 20,000 people are stuck in Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts due to the lockdown. "In the absence of employment opportunities, nobody will want to stay here. Labourers are waiting for trains to start plying. The moment railway operations resume, a sizeable number of migrant labourers will leave," he said. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar Himanshu Aggarwal said the district administration will come up with a plan to allow migrant labourers to return home. "The home ministry has asked state governments to appoint nodal officers to facilitate movement of people between states in a circular. District administration will formulate a strategy to facilitate the movement of all migrant labourers after receiving advisory from the state government," he said. (editor@dailyworld.in)