With the migrant population from other States decreasing in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday announced free education and healthcare facilities for them. Showering sops on migrant population ahead of 2014 polls, Badal said that the migrants will be offered housing facility on easy instalments.
The CM, addressing a gathering at a function organised by Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Parishad to celebrate Vishwakarma Day, acknowledged that migrant labour had played an important role in putting Punjab on the high growth trajectory.
“Migrant labourers have proved their mettle in every field, and it is the bounden duty of the State Government to ensure the well being of these people, who are contributing to the economic development of the state by staying away from their families,” said Badal.
Stating that the State Government would leave no stone unturned to ensure the welfare of these people, he said that thrust would be laid on delivering the basic civic amenities to them.
Eyeing their vote bank, he said that the State Government would soon open schools,
primary healthcare centres and dispensaries in the areas dominated by migrant labour. Special surveys would be conducted by the district authorities to identify the sites for
such facilities. “The State Government would bear the entire expenditure of these educational and healthcare centers to ensure that the families of the migrants do not face any sort of problem,” he said, adding that he had directed the Deputy Commissioners across the State to conduct special surveys for identifying the places to construct the schools and dispensaries in these areas.
Announcing housing facility for migrants on easy installments, Badal said that the migrants would not have to pay the cost of land for these houses and only the construction charges would be collected from them through easy instalments.
Badal said that the State Government would ensure that one-third of the houses constructed under housing schemes are reserved specially for the migrants to make sure that these people ‘feel at home’ in the State.
He said that special camps would be organised in each district to provide ration cards, Aadhaar cards, voter cards and other facilities to eligible migrants.