The Hindu : Karnataka News : Kiln owner faces prosecution

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Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Kiln owner faces prosecution

Special Correspondent

‘It will make the rescued workers entitled to rehabilitation’
A worker who had gone missing is also rescued

Bangalore: There is some good news for the 69 workers rescued by the Labour Department and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from harrowing working conditions at a brick kiln at Doddahagade near Anekal on Wednesday.

The Revenue Department has started the process for charging their employer under the Bonded Labour Act.

Bangalore Urban District Deputy Commission M.A. Sadiq told The Hindu that the Assistant Commissioner and other officials had visited the workers at Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), an NGO with which they have now been put up, and taken statements on forced labour.

Mathew Philip of South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM), who was part of the raid team, said the move to book the employer was welcome because it would entitle the workers to interim relief and rehabilitation when they returned to their home State of Orissa. “It will mean that the employer has to be immediately arrested and getting bail is not easy,” said Mr. Philip.

Meanwhile, the department is preparing to issue notices to the employer for violation of Minimum Wages Act, Equal Remuneration Act, Child Labour Act, Factories Act and Payment of Bonus Act. Vasant Kumar Hittanagi, Assistant Labour Commissioner who conducted the raid, said prosecution process would begin if the owner failed to file a compliance report.

According to statistics provided by APSA, the number of workers rescued is 69, five of whom are aged below 14 and 34 aged below 18.

Another worker rescued

Gajapathi Suna — a worker who had gone missing from the brick kiln just before the Labour Department raid — was rescued on Thursday night. The 22-year-old, who has been brought to Bangalore, has alleged that eight people had attempted to kidnap him and he recognised one of them as the brother of an accountant at the kiln.

Gajapathi was not traceable at the time of the raid and his whereabouts were known only after he called from a public telephone booth in Sarjapura on Thursday morning. He was then brought back to the city by members of APSA and Bijay Kumar of the Orissa-based NGO The Friends Association for Rural Reconstruction.

Gajapathi told The Hindu that he had been whisked away just before the raid team arrived.

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