‘Child labour an offence’

LAHORE

Provincial Minister for Labour & Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has said taking labour from the children less than the age of 14 years is an offence. He said the Punjab government had enforced the Ordinance 2016 prohibiting forcible labour from the children at brick kilns. He said that on violation, kiln owners and other persons responsible would have to face imprisonment, fine and closure of kiln.

He said this while presiding over a departmental meeting in this regard on Thursday. Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif had introduced a special package of bringing the children of labourers working at brick kilns into educational mainstream. He said besides special monthly stipend of Rs 1,000, books, stationery, uniform and transport facility would also be provided to them free of cost.

The meeting was told that after the final approval of the ordinance, strict action would be taken against the violators. The Labour Department has issued a notification for the constitution of district labour committees. According to the notification, DCOs, DPOs, Assistant Commissioners, SDPOs and officials of special branch will be included in the district labour committees. DCOs and DPOs will be the heads of these committees who will be bound to inspect two brick kilns in a week. Assistant Commissioners and Sub-Divisional Police Officers will inspect brick kilns daily whereas officials of special branch will assist them. In case of violation of the ordinance, a case will be registered against the owner and a six-month imprisonment and fine up to Rs 500,000 can be imposed. Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said elimination of child labour at kilns by Kiln Owners Association was a welcome step. He asked kiln owners to help the government to provide education to the children of kiln labourers and play their important role in eliminating the menace of child labour from the society.

fish hatchery: Director General Fisheries Punjab Dr. Muhammad Ayub said to meet the growing demand of fish seed in the province, a large hatchery in Lahore and five new nurseries in various districts of the province were being set up at the cost of Rs 467 million where a number of fish seed production could be made possible. He said main objective of the project was to deliver better fish seed and extension services to the fish farmers for the promotion of fisheries. He said this while talking to media-men who called on him at his office on Thursday. He told the media that a large hatchery was being established in Lahore at Bhaseen on 60 acres of land at a cost of Rs 254 million whereas five nurseries consisting of six acres each in Pakpattan, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal, Chinniot and Nankana Sahib at a cost of Rs 197 million and Rs 16 million would be spent on office management. He said through establishment of a large fish seed hatchery and nursery units in five districts, production of additional three million quality fish seed of culturing fish species could be made possible as well as problems of fish farmers would also be addressed as these districts were lacking this facility. Dr. Muhammad Ayub said that for the growth of fish in fish farming sector, besides Cage culture and Race Way Culture, Bio Floc Technology, Pro Biotics Technology and Genetically Modified Organism were being used worldwide for the rapid growth in production of fish.