Jalandhar DC makes video appeal to migrant labourers not to leave Punjab

JALANDHAR: Jalandhar deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma issued a video appeal to the migrant labourers not to leave the district out of panic in any case as adequate arrangements have been made by district administration for their boarding and lodging.
Making the appeal in Hindi, the DC said, "Migrant labourers should not get panic and rush towards their native states in this hour of crisis as the state government led by Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has made elaborate arrangements for facilitating them.The industries which want to resume their work had been given option by the state government to do so by making adequate arrangements for comfortable stay of labour besides ensuring their safety by maintaining social distance at work”.
He also said that even those factories which were unable to operate have been asked to provide free boarding and lodging to the migrant and pay their salaries. He said that the industrialists had been asked not to stop salaries of any of their employees. "If any industrialist is not able to afford logistics for the migrants then they would be provided free Langar or dry ration by the district administration," Sharma said.
Describing the migrants as backbone of the Punjab’s economy, the deputy commissioner said that if needed Deras of Radha Swami Beas would be transformed into camps for the migrant labourers, for which the Dera had already given its consent. He said that the migrants could contact the sub divisional magistrate, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Labour inspector or Station House Officer of their respective area in case of any help. DC said that if migrants were living in rented house then they won’t be forced to pay the rent and would not be ousted from it.
Meanwhile district administration on Monday distributed 5400 packets of the food material to the needy and underprivileged people especially migrant labourers working in the city from its central warehouse where the relief material is being sent to them.
DC said that the each packet contained five kilograms wheat flour, five kilogram rice, one kilogram sugar, one kilogram pulses and 250 grams of tea.