Written to Centre for trains to bring back migrant workers: Punjab industries minister

Sham Sunder Arora says issue of shortage of migrant labour will be resolved within a month

Ludhiana Punjab industries minister Sham Sunder Arora has said that the issue of shortage of migrant labour in the state would be resolved within a month. Arora, who met owners of industries at the Circuit House on Thursday, also added that migrant workers wanted to return back to Punjab.

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He added that with the increasing number of industrial units resuming operations in the state, the state government had written to the Union government to arrange trains for bringing back migrant workers who wished to return to work in Punjab. “Two buses with returning workers reached Hoshiarpur on Thursday,” he added.

Arora added that he had also written to the Centre to allow export of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits being made in the state. On Centre’s relief measure for industry, he added that instead of another loan, industrialists wanted waiver of bank interest on existing loans for at least six months. He added that under the Ghar Ghar Rozgar Scheme, around 20,000 local youngsters were being trained as boiler operators and their two-year course at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) would end this year.

At the meeting, social distancing norms went for a toss as media personnel and industry owners jostled with each other to talk to the minister. Even as some industrialists wanted to submit a memorandum to him, electronic media wanted his quote. Realising that the situation could get out of hand, the minister remarked, “Please maintain distance, otherwise this rush will become news.”