Following the announcement of a nationwide lockdown from March 24, many migrant labourers have been stranded in various parts of the country. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said the government's focus right now was on getting the labourers back to their homes and ensure that they had food and other things for basic living.

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"We are talking to the industry on that with further opening in the month of May, jobs are retained, salaries are also retained," he said.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Q. With the pandemic, a major issue the country witnessed was of the migrant labours, they are still stranded and stuck. What is the governmet doing about them?

It is true that in India unorganised labour population is huge and throughout the year they keep on migrating from one destination to the other to earn their living.

In India such unorganised labourers are to the tune of 40 crores and this includes labours across various sectors be the construction workers be it the farm labours for those occupied in various other jobs.

Issues of migrant labours came to the fore because of lack of movement through public transport such as trains and buses. Now government has allowed movement of migrant labours.

All state governments are working towards addressing these issues.

Our now focus is that labourers, if they are stuck they should reach back home and once they are at home they should have enough food and needs for their basic living.

Our focus is also on the fact that with the end of lockdown such labours should be able to move back to their workplace safely.

For this, I have written to all state labour ministers to look at these issues and they should facilitate labourers through various funds and allocations by giving them direct relief.

In many states, announcements for disbursal of this fund to labourers has been made, ranging between Rs1000 rupees till Rs 5000 to each labour.

Three days back, I have again written to all state labour ministers asking them to give their suggestions and to prepare the strategy to assist migrant labours stuck in their states.

I have asked them to see how soon migrant labours can get back to work and what would be the requirements post the lockdown of these labourers.

I have also spoken to them personally asking them to come up with suggestions.

Once they submit suggestions to me, Centre will look into the suggestions and form a comprehensive strategy.

Q. Graded opening also saw shortage of labour. How will you address this, which is leading to further economic impact?

You are absolutely right. In cases where labour has already migrated back to their native place, it will take at least 2 to 3 months for them to come back.

Such labour has actually found a new new job in the villages, be it in the agriculture sector or in the rural economy.

This is why it is difficult for them to leave a secure job there and come back.

I have been told by industry and a few top industry leaders that in the times to come it will now become difficult for industries to find labour in the industrial zones.

Since labour is reluctant to move back from their native places and those who will be now moving towards the industrial activity will come only at increased wages.

We are now saying that a lot of state governments are taking efforts to give new jobs to skilled labours of their states.

Recently Uttar Pradesh government has assured that it is ready to provide jobs to the skilled labours of its state.

This is a positive move and we hope that from 3rd May, there will be further new openings in select zones, which will for the provide more relief to labourers, in terms of jobs to migrant labours assuring them of their wages.

Post 3rd May, it will be further more clear as to what will be the impact, when it comes to shortage of labour, when it comes to wages, when it comes to new job opportunities.

It will be appropriate for the government to take an action once we are able to assess the immediate impact, which can be done only after 3rd May.

Q. Labour ministry had issued advisory on 20 March asking all to not to cut salaries and jobs. However, still many sectors saw a job cut and pay cut. How do you assess this situation?

I have been in constant touch with industry and with state labour secretaries and ministers.

I have told them that wherever there is a stuck payment, industry should clear it. When it comes to the salaries of February and March, mostly also struck salaries have been cleared.

The issue now coming to the fore is regarding the salaries of April. Since today is the first day of May, April salaries are normally paid during the first week of the month of May.

I have asked for a fresh assessment of salaries for the month of April only then the government will be able to take any future action. We we have also started 20 workers help lines through which we are getting constant update queries and suggestions which we are timely addressing.

In 4 days we got over 9500 plus queries and the government is ensuring that all search queries get answered at the earliest.

We are now focusing and talking to the industry on that with further opening in the month of May, jobs are retained, salaries are also retained. Slowly things will come back to normal for both the industry and the workforce.

I held a meeting today and I have called another meeting with trade unions and employee unions on 6th of May and 8th of May, separately, to understand their issues their concerns especially with respect to what will be the immediate issues, once normalcy is seen and how these issues can be addressed at the earliest.

Q. How will the government ensure new jobs to reduce unemployment in the country?

We cannot make any estimate on the new jobs. However with the further relaxations in the lockdown, we are now seeing that construction work has resumed in road and highways. This has also provided some relief on the employment front.

Slowly many other activities are also opening up.

India is now focusing on how to turn the current problem into new opportunities.