The Hindu : National : “Children made to plough land in Bihar”

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Tuesday, Dec 11, 2007
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“Children made to plough land in Bihar”

Patna: A controversy erupted in the Bihar Assembly on Monday over two young boys being used to plough the land of the brother of Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who was slapped with charges of violation of labour laws.

The incident rocked the State Assembly amid demands by the ruling NDA members for the resignation of Union Rural Development Minister but he claimed it was “stage-managed”.

NDA MLAs demanded the immediate sacking of Mr. Singh in the wake of the TV reports. TV channels on Sunday showed two child labourers till the land owned by Raghuraj Singh at Shahpur in Bihar’s Vaishali district.

JD(U) MLA Sudhanshu Shankar Bhaskar, in the absence of Opposition MLAs who had left the House on an issue raised by them earlier, pressed for a resolution seeking dismissal of the Minister for his brother’s ‘unlawful act’.

Vaishali district authorities lodged an FIR against Mr. Prasad’s brother Raghuraj, charging him with engaging the children for ploughingf land “in utter violation of the labour laws.”

An inquiry had been ordered into the incident, a senior official of the labour department said. “The incident beamed by TV channels has been stage-managed ... There might be a well-hatched conspiracy to defame me,” Prasad said.

“We do not need any ploughing in the fields during this season and they must have helped in throwing seeds in the fields. No manual labour has been used — the media has hyped the issue,” he asserted.

But Raghuraj had a different tale to say as he admitted to having taken the services of the two children to plough the area for growing crops on payment. PTI

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