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Shiv Sena moots job permits for migrants

The BMC may make work permits compulsory for unskilled labourers who come to the city in search of work.

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Taking a cue from Ludhiana, the BMC may make work permits compulsory for unskilled labourers who come to the city in search of work.

The BMC’s general body, scheduled to meet in the first week of April, may accept a notice of motion by Shiv Sena corporator Manmohan Chonkar and issue a circular.

“Putting restrictions on migrant workers is an effective way to control their influx,” Chonkar said. “The BMC has to make it mandatory for contractors to give details such as name, age, residential address, and fingerprints of the labourers hired by them. Once his project is over, the contractor should be bound to send the workers back where they came from. Otherwise, the BMC should not give him a completion certificate or pay him for the project.”

Migrant workers are drawn to Mumbai by the tremendous amount of construction work in the city. Earmarked for the future are massive projects like flyovers, roads, the metro and monorail, and the BMC’s Brimstowad project for revamping the city’s drainage system.

“The workers settle in Mumbai once a project is completed,” Chonkar said. “They live in slums or create new ones.”

But Rajhans Singh, leader of the opposition in the BMC, said, “The BMC’s ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine is responsible for the proliferation of slums and the influx of unskilled workers. Had they insisted upon the administration to remove unauthorised slums, the problem would not have arisen. The Congress will oppose the Sena’s move.”

Even the Sena’s ally, the BJP, is opposed to the move. “Such restrictions are unconstitutional,” advocate Ashish Shelar, leader of the BJP in the House, said. “The civic body cannot put such restrictions on any labourer. It is the right of every Indian to work anywhere in the country.”

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