Poll 2022: Labourers no more hopeful of change

Charanjit Singh Teja

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Amritsar, February 11

Labourers at Labour Chowk on Sultanwind Road are unable to identify the difference between candidates, political parties and their CM faces. A number of construction workers waiting for a person, who need a labourer for the day at 100 futti turn on Sultanwind, have lost hope of any political change.

“What would change if Badal, Sidhu, Bhagwant Mann or Channi were elected the CM. We have to stand every morning to wait for an employer for the day. After 10.30 am, when no one comes to hire us for the day, we know how painful it is to return home. We can’t face children on that day. I don’t know that who is contesting from my constituency wheatear it is “Panja” (hand) or Takari (scale), both are the same,” said Tochi, a labourer from Tarn Taran road.

“All the parties and politicians are the same. They have same words to say. Everyone claims to work for the poor before elections, but soon after the elections, they reserve the entry of their homes only for elites,” Ashok, another labourer said.

“I have been working as a construction labourer for the past 12 years. I own a two-room house in Verka area. The roof of one room collapsed last year. I am unable to reconstruct it. My sons are also unemployed. I took a non-institutional loan to buy a secondhand auto-rickshaw for my elder son. I vote every time but didn’t get any solution to my financial problems”, said Ghaina, a construction labourer.

“It is hue and cries of well-off voters that poor and labour-class gets liquor and money from influential candidates. I want to ask them what other politicians offer? They don’t have anything for the poor, no employment, no education, no health, no ration. So they offer liquor. If we deny it, what other they assure to give us. There is no check on the implementation of their poll promises”, said Makhan Singh a labourer from Sultanwind.