International Labour Day celebrated

The Ludhiana unit of the Punjab Medical Representative Association (PMRA) observed Labour Day in Doraha on Thursday.

Comrade Pankaj Sood Doraha greeted workers and recalled the 1886 Chicago workers’ movement which helped set the rules for the permissible amount of working hours. He paid tributes to workers globally and in India, stressing that no industry or economy could thrive without their efforts.

State president Anurag Singh along with former unit secretary Mandeep Raawat stressed the need to strengthen the movement against ‘Anti-Labour Policies’ of the subsequent governments.

President Dharminder Singh and unit secretary Vikas Prashar narrated the history of the day and its importance in a social, economic and general set up. GS Puri, Jagjeet Singh and Gurcharan Singh stressed legal reforms needed to be implemented in spirit in order to safeguard the interests of the labourers and make them feel important and significant in their own right.

Minister greets workers

Punjab Labour Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond said the state government was working hard to support workers’ welfare.

Speaking during an event at Ganga Acrowools to celebrate International Labour Day, the minister emphasised the Punjab Government’s commitment to running a major drive to register workers so they could fully utilise welfare schemes. He noted that many workers missed out on benefits due to a lack of registration in the past, but special camps were now being held to fix this. Sond criticised previous governments for not taking these welfare measures seriously.

He shared that the Punjab Labour Welfare Board’s scholarship programme now offered Rs 2,000 to Rs 70,000 for workers’ children’s education. The earlier clause requiring two years of service to qualify for this scheme had been removed, allowing workers to benefit immediately, he said. Similarly, the need for a registered marriage certificate for the Shagun scheme was dropped and workers could now submit wedding photos to access benefits.

The event was attended by Labour Secretary Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Labour Commissioner Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Khanna) Shika Bhagat, Joint Director Narinder Singh, Deputy Director Factories Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti, Ganga Acrowools chairman-cum-managing director Dr Ravinder Verma, president Amit Thapar, among others others.

Ludhiana