Updated 17:40 IST | Saturday, February 04, 2012
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Punjab for Punjabis, says Dal Khalsa
Punjab Newsline Network
Saturday, 01 November 2008
Hoshiarpur- Describing migrants as 'population bomb', hundreds of Dal Khalsa activists displaying placards and banners marched in the interior of the city of Hoshairpur and Jalandhar to convey that the (population) bomb was ticking and that their uncontrolled influx and permanent settlement is 'unwelcome' and unacceptable' in the state.
The Party president HS Dhami urged the Punjab government to build rules and evolve its immigration policies to curb the menace. "We choose this occasion of 42nd anniversary of Punjab Day as we thought it was an appropriate day to air our resentment against the heavy influx of migrants", he thundered.
He said Punjab being homeland of all Punjabis has a large number of unwelcome guests in the shape of migrant labour since last 3 decades. The 'charges' leveled against migrant labour ranged from changing demographic complexion to polluting culture. The activists shouted slogans urging the government to make laws to regulate the entries of migrants. They carried placards and big hoarding on vehicles on which "Return Migrants, Save Punjab" and " Punjab for Punjabis" were inscribed.
Pledging to take the issue to its logical conclusion, the organization suggested certain measures to check the flow of migrants that include promulgating an act that fixes the upper limit of the percentage (app 20 percent) of jobs for non-Punjabis Residents in all enterprises in the state whether private or public sector.
Other recommendations were ban on immovable properties, regulation and monitoring of the influx of the labourers, registration offices at all bus stands and railway stations, similarly quarantine measures by health department and Illegal jhugees (slum areas) should not be allowed to come up in any part of the state.
He said their delegation would soon meet the chief minister to apprise him of the explosive situation and would rather suggest him certain measures to tackle the migrant menace through adoption of legal legislature ensuring the safeguarding of Punjab from further disaster. Reminding the chief minister of his party's solemn promise during the assembly elections in 2007 to checkmate the flow of river waters to non-riparian states, he said "the Article 5 of the Punjab's Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 that protects the present flow of waters to Rajasthan and Haryana should be abrogated.
Before the start of the March, the organization paid homage to the victims of the November 1984 anti-Sikh carnage. Terming the Delhi carnage as blot on the image of the Indian democracy, they said the state engineered the killings of the Sikhs.
In his address, Dhami, leader of the group argued that though nobody can deny that migration of labour is a natural phenomenon reflecting demand for manpower, however, no state permits unchecked influx of migrants. Initially, it may be a privilege but now it has become a headache.
When media men reminded Dhami that if Sikhs could go to other states to search for better lives, why denies migrants the same right, he replied that parallels could not be drawn in both the cases. He clarified that Punjabis had not posed any demographic threat to any state they had migrated nor they were polluting culture of any region or religion. Admitting that laziness has crept in within Sikh masses, he gave a call to Punjabis to lessen their dependence on migrants.
Another senior leader of the Dal Khalsa Kanwar Pal Singh claimed that the continuous entry of migrant labour would tend to disturb the demographic complexion of the state.
According to rough estimates, he claim, the number of migrants has reached round about 26 to 28 lacs- more than one tenth of the total population of the state. He further said about 13 lack migrants are presently working in the state while app. 15 lacs Punjabi's were unemployed.
He cited the study conducted by Professors of PAU according to which around 55 percent of the agricultural labours had settled here permanently, where as this figure was about 11 percent in 1983-84. He further claimed that the ratio of migrant labour against locals is app 80:20 in the case of industrial sector and 70:30 in respect of agricultural sector.
Touching the other aspects of the 'problem', Dr Manjinder Singh, general secretary said since all successive governments have bitterly failed in monitoring and regulating the entries and identities of the migrants, the unchecked and overwhelming influx of migrant labour has brought a whole load of unwanted baggage and social evils into Punjab.
Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib former president while speaking said the influx of migrant labour was being 'managed' by 'unseen' central forces that were all set to reduce the Sikhs to minority in Punjab itself. The sudden entry of Hindi newspapers in a short span of time has a blessing of these forces. Accusing the migrants for draining the Punjab's economy, he said the migrants were earning app. 3000 crores per annum and out of it they were remitting two-third of their earnings to their native places.
Blaming the administrations for turning blind eye to encroachments and slums constructed on illegal lands, Ranbir Singh, district president of the radical group, said Jhuggi settlements and the health hazards they bring are unacceptable to the native and law-abiding residents of Punjab.
The Party president HS Dhami urged the Punjab government to build rules and evolve its immigration policies to curb the menace. "We choose this occasion of 42nd anniversary of Punjab Day as we thought it was an appropriate day to air our resentment against the heavy influx of migrants", he thundered.
He said Punjab being homeland of all Punjabis has a large number of unwelcome guests in the shape of migrant labour since last 3 decades. The 'charges' leveled against migrant labour ranged from changing demographic complexion to polluting culture. The activists shouted slogans urging the government to make laws to regulate the entries of migrants. They carried placards and big hoarding on vehicles on which "Return Migrants, Save Punjab" and " Punjab for Punjabis" were inscribed.
Pledging to take the issue to its logical conclusion, the organization suggested certain measures to check the flow of migrants that include promulgating an act that fixes the upper limit of the percentage (app 20 percent) of jobs for non-Punjabis Residents in all enterprises in the state whether private or public sector.
Other recommendations were ban on immovable properties, regulation and monitoring of the influx of the labourers, registration offices at all bus stands and railway stations, similarly quarantine measures by health department and Illegal jhugees (slum areas) should not be allowed to come up in any part of the state.
He said their delegation would soon meet the chief minister to apprise him of the explosive situation and would rather suggest him certain measures to tackle the migrant menace through adoption of legal legislature ensuring the safeguarding of Punjab from further disaster. Reminding the chief minister of his party's solemn promise during the assembly elections in 2007 to checkmate the flow of river waters to non-riparian states, he said "the Article 5 of the Punjab's Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 that protects the present flow of waters to Rajasthan and Haryana should be abrogated.
Before the start of the March, the organization paid homage to the victims of the November 1984 anti-Sikh carnage. Terming the Delhi carnage as blot on the image of the Indian democracy, they said the state engineered the killings of the Sikhs.
In his address, Dhami, leader of the group argued that though nobody can deny that migration of labour is a natural phenomenon reflecting demand for manpower, however, no state permits unchecked influx of migrants. Initially, it may be a privilege but now it has become a headache.
When media men reminded Dhami that if Sikhs could go to other states to search for better lives, why denies migrants the same right, he replied that parallels could not be drawn in both the cases. He clarified that Punjabis had not posed any demographic threat to any state they had migrated nor they were polluting culture of any region or religion. Admitting that laziness has crept in within Sikh masses, he gave a call to Punjabis to lessen their dependence on migrants.
Another senior leader of the Dal Khalsa Kanwar Pal Singh claimed that the continuous entry of migrant labour would tend to disturb the demographic complexion of the state.
According to rough estimates, he claim, the number of migrants has reached round about 26 to 28 lacs- more than one tenth of the total population of the state. He further said about 13 lack migrants are presently working in the state while app. 15 lacs Punjabi's were unemployed.
He cited the study conducted by Professors of PAU according to which around 55 percent of the agricultural labours had settled here permanently, where as this figure was about 11 percent in 1983-84. He further claimed that the ratio of migrant labour against locals is app 80:20 in the case of industrial sector and 70:30 in respect of agricultural sector.
Touching the other aspects of the 'problem', Dr Manjinder Singh, general secretary said since all successive governments have bitterly failed in monitoring and regulating the entries and identities of the migrants, the unchecked and overwhelming influx of migrant labour has brought a whole load of unwanted baggage and social evils into Punjab.
Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib former president while speaking said the influx of migrant labour was being 'managed' by 'unseen' central forces that were all set to reduce the Sikhs to minority in Punjab itself. The sudden entry of Hindi newspapers in a short span of time has a blessing of these forces. Accusing the migrants for draining the Punjab's economy, he said the migrants were earning app. 3000 crores per annum and out of it they were remitting two-third of their earnings to their native places.
Blaming the administrations for turning blind eye to encroachments and slums constructed on illegal lands, Ranbir Singh, district president of the radical group, said Jhuggi settlements and the health hazards they bring are unacceptable to the native and law-abiding residents of Punjab.
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