NewsGate Press Network

In order to arrest and prevent exodus of migrant workers leaving Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh has thrown open industrial units and brick kilns with immediate effect.

The Punjab Chief Minister has ordered that these migrants could be accommodated within premises of industrial units with adequate safety measures placed in.

Captain Amarinder said his government was also in discussion with Radha Soami Satsang Beas, which has already offered its Bhawans as quarantine facilities, to allow migrant labourers to stay there as these people would be needed for wheat harvesting in the fields in two weeks’ time.

The owners of industrial units and brick kilns can commence production if they have enough space to accommodate the migrant labourers and provide them with food, said the Chief Minister, while appealing to the owners to ensure that social distancing is maintained during this period.

The directions and discussions came amid reports of lakhs of migrant labourers getting stranded across the nation, and the problem assuming ominous proportions with such labourers gathering in large numbers at borders in many states, according to an official spokesperson.

The Central Government has directed states to adhere strictly to the national lockdown, including sealing of the borders for human movement, to check the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.The Chief Minister said this would be beneficial for both, the industry/brick kiln owners as well as the labourers who had lost their employment and homes in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, and had been left to fend for themselves.

In a related development Capt Amarinder Singh earlier on Sunday i.e. on 29-March-2020 urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to amend the conditions for utilization of the 14th Finance Commission grants for COVID19 crisis.

Seeking the personal intervention of the Union Finance Minister, Capt. Amarinder asked her to advise the Ministries of Housing & Urban Affairs and Panchayati Raj to initiate immediate action in this regard.

Punjab CM said that these grants could be used to make provision of emergency relief (medicines, food etc.) for the poorest sections by the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as a fit charge to meet exigencies during the lockdown crisis period.

Pleading the State’s case, the Chief Minister said emergency relief (medicines, food etc) should also be allowed both for ULBs and PRIs to ease the burden stress on the State’s resources and provide much needed relief immediately to the most deserving at the grassroots level during the current phase of crisis situation.

The Punjab Chief Minister said that both urban and rural local self-government institutions have unspent funds available which could be immediately utilized for provision of relief by way of food, medicines, etc to the poor, distressed and the most vulnerable population living in slums, etc.