Punjab Nirmaan Mazdoor Union hold dharna

Tribune News Service

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Jalandhar, March 21

As per its decision, the state committee of the Punjab Nirman Mazdoor Union will stage dharnas in front of the office of the Assistant Labour Commissioner here in the coming days, with the demand to continue off line registrations of construction labourers in the state.

The union hold a dharna condemning the state’s stance against labourers by construction labourers of Pathankot, here on Wednesday.A demand letter was also given to Chief Minister, Punjab, on the issue on Wednesday.

Addressing the gathering, the state president Harinder Singh Randhawa said the number of construction labourers in the state as per a survey conducted in 2016-17, was 21 lakh. He said the actual number of labourers in the state was much more than that and was constantly on the rise every day.

He said rather than implementing the Act made for these labourers – The building and other construction workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996,— anti-labourer revisions were being made. In the light of the same, releasing the online schemes was a way to dilute the benefits to be received by the labourers under various schemes started for them, he added.

He said protest amongst labourers was on the rise and it was imperative that the offline system continued to be retained.

CTU Punjab general secretary Nattha Singh said while the Modi government was not fulfilling promises made during the elections, it was rather implementing anti-labourer policies causing harm to the future of the labourers. They also condemned the Central government’s attempt of breaking up 44 labour laws and implementing them as four laws.