The high-level committee of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department sent a proposal to the government to include outsourcing, enlistment workers in the department.

 The high-level committee of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department sent a proposal to the government to include outsourcing, enlistment workers in the department.

An additional burden of Rs 842.26 lakh per year was mentioned,

Reactions from the leaders of the department's organizations.

Fatehgarh Sahib, November 2 (Malagar Khamano) The Punjab government had formed a sub-committee of cabinet ministers under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema to prepare a policy regarding raw workers in various departments. The Finance Minister, the Chairman of the Committee, held meetings with various contract workers, regular employees' organizations, and struggle committees of the department, according to which an eight-member committee of departmental officers was formed on 4/5/2023 to keep the workers working under the outsourcing and enlistment policy in the Water Supply and Sanitation Department in direct contact with the department. The departmental proposal was submitted to the Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab on 9/9/2025 by the concerned committee. Which has been sent to the state leaders of various organizations of the department. According to the proposal issued, the subject of which is to keep the enlistment and outsourcing workers in contact directly under the department, the entire field and office workers have been divided into two categories, one qualified and the other unqualified. Further, both the categories have been divided into three parts, including those with 5 years, 5 to 10 years, and more than 10 years of service, of which 4329 enlistment and 1129 outsourcing workers have been mentioned. In which 308 workers are qualified in the enlistment field, 2206 are unqualified, 97 are qualified in offices, and 225 are unqualified, 183 are qualified in the outsourcing field, 83 are unqualified, 403 are qualified in offices, and 64 are unqualified. The eligibility of these workers has been decided under the rules notified in the year 2021. According to the issued proposal, it has been suggested that workers who do not fulfill the educational qualification, even if they have been in service for more than 10 years, should take the departmental test. If they pass the test, they can be considered qualified. According to the released proposal, it has been said that wages should be linked to the CSR Act for direct contact. On the other hand, financial expenditure has also been mentioned, according to which an additional burden of Rs 442.26 lakh has been mentioned due to the implementation of EPF, ESI. Here too, if it is valid, the enlistment policy is present only in the Water Supply and Sanitation Department. In this regard, the state president of the Outsourcing Workers' Organization, Sarabjit Singh Bhullar, said that the Chief Minister of the Punjab Government had accepted our main demand in a meeting held in Jalandhar. Reacting to this, he said that in the departmental proposal, we welcome the decision to take the said special related outsourcing workers directly under the department. He said that according to the 2016 Act, we had to be included in the department even though according to that Act, even the raw workers of the department were made permanent. He said that basic scale allowances should be applicable like BRC category. The above proposal has come under suspicion by mentioning EPF ESI. State leader of Enlisted Workers' Organization Davinder Singh Nabha said that the subject of the proposal is correct but dividing the workers into qualified and unqualified as per the rules of March 2021 is a violation of labor laws. While the relevant department is listed in the labor laws, experience should be the basis. They said that our workers have been working continuously since 2001, on whom only the recruitment rules should have been applicable at that time, secondly, EPF, ESI are applicable only to companies and CPF should be applied to us, PWD Water Supply Coordination Sangharsh Committee conveners Mulagar Singh Khamano, Bikar Singh Makha, Sukhnandan Singh Mahnia while commenting on the proposed proposal said that taking a test from the workers is completely unconstitutional. They said that imposing a test condition is an attack on the unity of the workers because this year, Thapar University had taken a test under the 2021 rules for promotion from the regular rank four field employees of the department. In which not a single employee could pass, he said that on one hand the policy of panchayatization is being implemented vigorously, on the other hand the proposal to include contract workers in the department is a policy to sprinkle cold on the struggle of the workers. He said that if the government implements the Act 2016, the categories of contract workers can get a lot of justice. An attempt was made to contact the cabinet minister of the department, Hardeep Singh Mundian, but he could not give his response due to the busyness of the Tarn Taran by-election.