Punjab elections: Sidhu promises urban job scheme if Congress returns to power

Announces Urban Employment Guarantee Mission to give jobs to unskilled labour, particularly construction workers, in the state

Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday promised to launch an Urban Employment Guarantee Mission to give the right to employment to urban labour if his party retains power in the upcoming state elections.

Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu addressing a press conference at the state Congress headquarters in Chandigarh on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT)

Sidhu said this mission would be started on the lines of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a centrally sponsored scheme, to give employment to the urban poor, particularly unskilled labour, in towns and cities of the state.

“Urban poverty is double the rural poverty in the state. Besides giving right to employment, we will also fix the daily wage and regulate work hours,” he said at a press conference at the Punjab Congress Bhawan, the state headquarters of the party.

Calling his “revolutionary” idea as the USP (unique selling proposition) of his “Punjab model” of governance, the state Congress chief said this idea would change the lives of the urban poor. He hit out at the state government for not registering the urban labour, including construction workers, and giving full benefits of MNREGA to the rural poor. “I interacted with daily wagers at Madanpura Chowk in Mohali in the morning. They told me that only 1% of them were registered for benefits under various schemes and government officials asked for money to register them,” he said.

He said the government was collecting construction cess but check how many construction workers were registered.

He also raised questions over the minimum wages for workers, claiming these were lower in the state as compared to neighbouring Haryana.