Punjab: Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Punjab Congress chief, stated on Friday that if his party comes to power, he will launch an urban employment guarantee mission to ensure that urban employees in the state have access to jobs. He added the employment guarantee scheme would encompass unskilled labour as well, noting that urban poverty in Punjab is double that of rural poverty.

"The Punjab model will launch an urban job guarantee mission, right to employment for urban labour." He said. "It's like MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in cities," he remarked, describing the aim as "radical and revolutionary" in terms of his "Punjab model" of administration.

According to Sidhu, less than 1 percent of daily wage labourers, construction workers, and others have registered as beneficiaries of different government programmes.  He said he visited some labourers earlier in the day at Madanpura Chowk in Mohali and questioned how many of them were registered to receive government benefits.

"Only one hand was raised among the 150 daily labourers. He said, "I questioned how many of them had labour cards, and they said officials required money."

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