CHANDIGSRH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan for additional allocation of 14144 MT of wheat, along with 1414 MT of pulses, for two months for distribution to the migrant labour/poor non-NFSA residents of the state.
This step would be instrumental in incentivising the workers to return to work for their livelihood, besides fully reviving the industrial activity, said the Chief Minister.
In a letter to the Union Minister, Captain Amarinder said that this initiative on the part of Centre was necessary as the loss of wages for the past few months had severely crippled the purchasing power of the migrants and the poor Non-NFSA citizens.
Pertinently, the Government of India had allocated 14, 144 MT of wheat and 1015 MT of pulses for distribution to migrants and non-NFSA beneficiaries under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme. The distribution of these stocks is going on in the state and is expected to be completed within the next 10-15 days.
It may be recalled that under this scheme the state government is in the process of distributing more than 14 lakh dry ration packets containing 10 Kg Atta, 2 Kg Dal and 2 Kg sugar to migrant labour and non-NFSA poor beneficiaries.
The Government of India had given only 10 Kg wheat and approx 500gm Dal per person. Subsequently, the state government had decided to convert the wheat into Atta for easier and quicker consumption by the poor migrants. In addition l, the quantity of the Dal which was found to be grossly inadequate increased from 500 gram to 2 kg and sugar was also added to make the packet more wholesome.
Captain Amarinder said that of late, migrants have again started returning to Punjab for the ongoing Kharif season for work as farm labour. Apart from this, industrial activity has also been largely normalised.
He mentioned that out of the 2.60 lakh industrial units located within the state, more than 2.32 lakh have resumed operations. About 13.5 lakh workers are normally employed in these units, a majority of them being migrant labour, added the Chief Minister.