Chandigarh, July 26 -- Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Saturday urged governor Gulab Chand Kataria to approve The Punjab State Outsourced Personnel (Transition to Contractual Engagement) Ordinance, 2026, saying its clearance would pave the way for government departments to absorb outsourced staff on direct contractual engagement. Addressing a press conference here, Cheema said the ordinance, approved by the state cabinet on July 13 will facilitate transition of thousands of outsourced workers, including sanitation workers, sewer workers, and power board staff into direct contractual engagement with the state government, ending their exploitation by third-party contractors. "The ordinance has been pending at Raj Bhavan for the past 12 days," he said, urging the governor to accord his approval at the earliest to provide relief to thousands of outsourced workers. He said the contractual outsourcing system introduced by previous Congress and Akali Dal-BJP governments had subjected young professionals to years of financial and professional exploitation....