Shortage of labour hits Karnal development projects hard
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, April 21
The reverse migration of labourers after the enforcement of lockdown to contain Covid spread has resulted in the shortage of labour, which seems to be a big hurdle in the completion of major projects in the district.
After the fresh guidelines from the Centre to allow construction during the lockdown period, the state government has also granted permission to the PWD and NHAI to restart the work on the ongoing projects.
Several road-widening projects in Karnal, including the ones to Indri Road, Kaithal Road, Assandh Road and Kunjpura Road, along with the maintenance of roads in Sector 13, Model Town among others were underway before the enforcement of lockdown. As per sources, a couple of projects have already missed the deadline.
Contractors say usually the labour for road construction works come from UP and Bihar, but after the enforcement of lockdown they have moved back to their native places, creating a shortage in Haryana. Now the contractors are searching for labour in villages, but the rural workers are already occupied in wheat harvesting.
“I have been facing a shortage of labour to carry on a road widening project. The labourers that were hired for the road project have already moved to their places after the enforcement of lockdown. I went to rural areas to arrange the labour, but could not get as they are busy in harvesting,” said a contractor on the condition of anonymity.
Another contractor said they were not getting raw material for the construction, including sand and gravel, due to which they were not able to restart the work.
Meanwhile, Dalel Singh Dahiya, XEN, PWD, said the contractors had been directed to start the work by arranging labour.
