AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, 30 May 2026 praised the Punjab government's decision to regularise approximately 65,000 contractual and outsourced state employees, calling it a historic first in the country and the beginning of a new life for tens of thousands of families.

Context

Posting in Hindi on X, Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab had decided to end the contractual system — ठेकेदारी प्रथा — and permanently absorb 65,000 temporary and outsourced workers into regular service. 'This decision is historic and has been taken for the first time in the country,' he wrote, adding that it was 'not just a decision but the beginning of a new life for all these families, where they will get full rights and dignity.'

He extended congratulations to all the affected employees and to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for taking what he described as a landmark step.

Policy Backdrop

AAP's 2022 Punjab election manifesto had explicitly promised to end ad-hoc and contractual employment in state departments and regularise affected workers — a commitment that distinguished the party from the preceding Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal regimes, both of which had expanded outsourcing in public services over the previous two decades.

The Delhi AAP government had earlier issued multiple orders between 2015 and 2022 regularising contractual teachers, sanitation workers, and other staff in municipal and state bodies, establishing a template that the Punjab government appears to be building upon at a larger scale.

Stakeholders and Impact

The workers covered by the decision span a wide range of public-service categories — from sanitation and health to administrative support — who have long been employed through third-party contractors at lower wages and without the job security, pension entitlements, or service protections available to regular government employees.

For these 65,000 workers and their families, regularisation typically means access to fixed pay scales, provident fund contributions, medical benefits, and protection against arbitrary dismissal. Labour welfare groups across India have cited such measures as a benchmark for states grappling with the proliferation of contractual public employment.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the operational details: the timeline for issuing appointment orders, the funding arrangements required to absorb 65,000 additional regular employees into Punjab's fiscal framework, and any legal challenges that may arise from existing permanent staff or contractors. The state's fiscal position and the pace of implementation will determine whether the announcement translates into ground-level change within the current budget cycle.

If executed fully, the move could intensify pressure on other state governments — including those run by rival parties — to address the large backlog of contractual workers in their own departments, making labour regularisation a sharper electoral issue ahead of assembly polls in several states.