Jalandhar, October 10
Thirty-three youths from Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Moga, who had paid hefty amount to travel agents for sending them to Italy, Spain and other European countries, have been kept in a confinement in Mali for the past many months.

The President of the Lok Bhalai Party, Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, stated this at a press conference here today. He said these youths contacted them so that they could come back home.

He said the travel agents, who have confined them, had been asking them to pay Rs 2 lakh more before they could be sent out to their destinations.

He read out the names of the youths, their residence phone numbers and addresses and said their parents were being contacted so that they could be informed about their status.

He said that he was trying to contact the embassy there so that they could be rescued.

Mr Ramoowalia also presented Ms Rajwant Kaur, a 26-year-old woman from Kola village, near Jagraon.

Narrating her ordeal, he said she and her mother did not have any source of income after her brother passed away and her father became bed-ridden.

“She got married in March 2002 after which she lost all her property, including 2 acres of agricultural land and a house. She became totally dependent on her in-laws where she was not happy. Her husband wanted to divorce her as he wanted to go abroad. With the intervention of the police and after persuasion, we tried to get her Rs 9.5 lakh from her in-laws so that she and her mother could live a comfortable life,” he added.

Sunny Sheikh of Nathowal village in Jalandhar district, who was also present at the conference, showed scars on his body that he had got because of inhuman conditions in Algeria.

“I had paid Rs 10 lakh for migrating to Europe but the travel agent left me in Algeria. Two boys from Bhogpur died in the past few months as they could not bear the torture”, he said. The Lok Bhalai Party also saved him.

Mr Ramoowalia also talked about the murder case of Vasakha Singh in Tusa village of Ludhiana that occurred in Amritsar with the involvement of a surgeon from a private hospital in Doraha. The surgeon is also running a travel agency.

He said while the parents believed that their 28-year-old son had reached Canada, he had been murdered in Amritsar. The police had recovered his unclaimed body long back and the matter when probed turned out to be a case related to Ludhiana, he said.

Regarding the forthcoming elections, Mr Ramoowalia said a third front would soon be floated in Punjab to fight out the Congress and the SAD-BJP. He said various parties, including the CPI, the CPM, the Akali Dal (1920) and the SAD (Longowal), were holding a dialogue over the issue.

Ten-year-old Ramu was washing utensils outside a dingy dhabha near Jyoti Chowk in Jalandhar this afternoon after serving customers. For him, the ban on child labour does not make any difference.

“For me it is important to earn at least Rs 50 daily so that I could buy medicines for my asthmatic mother. I can’t go to school as my father can’t afford education,” the son of a daily-wager said.

Like him, thousands of children continue to work in households, restaurants and hotels. The Tribune on Tuesday carried out an extensive survey of the region to find out the impact of the ban on child labour.

The law prohibits employing children up to the age of 14 in households, eating joints, tea shops, hotels, catering units, hostels, clubs, spas and recreation centres from October 10.

“The ban is a welcome step, but it should be implemented effectively,” said Mr Arvind Abrol, owner of a sports goods company. He said thousands of children continue to be employed for stitching footballs here.

“Visit villages on the outskirts of Jalandhar like Mand on the Kapurthala road and Nullah near Danish Manda and you will find a number of boys and girls busy stitching footballs,” he said.

The situation was similar in Amritsar. Various dhabas and small-time business establishments continue to employ children for petty jobs.

Interestingly, most of the employees of the Labour Department were not present in the office. An inspector was busy in entertaining public grievances as Tuesday being the day fixed for hearing complaints. Although the department has been empowered to take punitive action against the erring employers, they have failed to initiate measures to stop this social menace due to lack of will power.

An NGO, the India Vision Foundation, working for the betterment of the poor, felt that the government would have to provide a suitable alternative to hapless children who would be left in lurch but would have no hope to grow in life as a responsible citizen.

It suggested that the government must provide a sustainable programme to uplift their lot by giving them basic education and vocational training to bring them out of this uncertainty.

Unaware of the fact that the ban came into force on Tuesday, Ranji (13), a migrant from Bihar, was busy in washing utensils at a sweet shop on the Amritsar road in Kapurthala. He has been working on this shop for the past five months.

Like him, the owner of the shop, Ravinder Kumar, also did not know that the ban came into force on employing children below the age of 14 in homes, hotels and restaurants. Ravinder Kumar told The Tribune that Ranji’s father, Kritya Anand, who works as a labourer in Bihar, was so poor that he could not send his son to school.

Ranji’s relatives had employed him at his shop saying that if he did not do some work, he might join some bad company.

Raising questions about what will be his future, he suggested that some rehabilitation programme should be initiated for such type of children. 
Ranji’s case is not an isolated one. Sanju (12) has been working at a tea shop located on Bania Bazaar Chowk.

So much so, a six-year-old boy is also seen doing work of washing utensils at a soup kiosk near Shalimar Bagh.

According to an estimate, at least 1,000 child labourers are working at different places in Kapurthala district.

Experts say it is very difficult to implement the ban, especially in the district, as the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Mr S.P. Singh, is holding additional charge and visit Kapurthala only once a week on Thursday. In Phagwara, a large number of children were busy in making earthen pots for Divali in Hargobind Nagar. Most of them are migrants from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, but they were ignorant about the notification.

Residents of Nawanshahr are more or less unaware about the ban.

Mr Daljit Singh, a senior CPI (ML) leader, and Mr Kulwinder Singh Warraich, president, AIFTU, said the ban would be of little help to check the child labour problem as it failed to redress the root cause of the problem.

“The worst hit are children of brick-kiln workers, who are working at the brick-kilns along with their parents in hazardous and unhealthy living conditions. Moreover, as they are living at the brick-kilns along with their family members, it becomes difficult to identify them as child labourers,” they pointed out.

“If the government is serious about the abolition of child labour, then it should provide proper education and health facilities to the children,” they demanded. 
Mr Manmohan Singh Nagra and Mr Ravi Sareen, both advocates, said the government did not have the will and resources to implement the ban.

At a kiln near Chagran village in Hoshiarpur district, a large number of children were seen assisting their parents at a brick-kiln.

Vikram, a migrant labourer working at the kiln, said they were working on contract. Though he was well aware about the ban on child labour, he was unable to get his children educated due to his meager income.

Legal experts believe that abysmally low conviction rates and poor enforcement mechanisms prohibiting employment of children are hindrance in imposing the ban effectively.

With inputs from Parmod Bharti, Anil Jerath and Ravinder Sud.

A UNICEF report, World’s Children 2006, states that in India, which has the largest number of working children, 17 per cent are under the age of 15 and girls aged 12-15 are the preferred choice of 90 per cent households.

Amritsar, October 10
“Fruit growing today is becoming an industry in itself. Adequate subsidy is required on insecticides,” said Mr Kartar Singh Narula, an Udyan Pandit Award recipient, while interacting with teachers and students of Guru Nanak Dev University today.

Mr Narula also delivered a talk on citrus cultivation in Punjab. Mr Narula regretted that the canal water was not supplied to orchards as per demand. He suggested the new entrepreneurs that if they were really interested in becoming good farmers, they must ensure their presence at the time of putting fertilizers and spraying the plants. He also stressed on using manure for strengthening the soil. His more emphasis was on developing seedless lemon plants.

Mr Narula apprised the kinnow growers of agronomic techniques, starting from the selection of seeds to harvesting of fruits.

“Kinnow is a very productive crop and could give dividends up to Rs 1.50 lakhs per acre if good cultivation practices are followed.”

Mr Narula, after visiting the university agriculture farm, approved the university land for kinnow cultivation. He suggested that whereas paddy consumes much water, kinnow requires less water.

Mr Narula was instrumental in bringing about citrus revolution in India in 1963 by collecting bud of four kinnow plants brought by Jawaharlal Nehru into India from Pakistan.

Dr Kanwaljit Singh, chairman, Farm and Landscape Committee, presided over the session and apprised the teachers and students about the university policy to replace paddy and wheat with horticulture and organic farming.

Prof G.S. Virk, who is working with the production of virus-free kinnow plants, gave details about the production of kinnow in Punjab.

Among others present on the occasion were Dr A.K. Thukral, Dr A.S. Siddhu, Dr Gurmit Singh, Dr Avinash Nagpal, Dr Renu Bharadwaj and Mr G.S. Pannu.

Kapurthala, October 10
The Tourism Minister, Mr Jagmohan Singh Kang, said yesterday that the government had received Rs 30 crore to promote tourism and Amritsar, Patiala and Kapurthala had been chosen for development as tourist destinations in view of their historic importance.

He was speaking after laying the foundation of the Kanjli wetland tourist complex here. He said the complex would be completed in the next four months. The complex would include a children’s park, restaurant and a guesthouse.

Speaking on the occasion, the MP from Jalandhar, Mr Rana Gurjit Singh, demanded the four-laning of the Old Sher Shah Suri Marg to help reduce traffic. — PTI

Hoshiarpur, October 10
Activists of the Youth Welfare Association, led by their state president, Mr Sandip Saini, Mr Kulwant Singh Saini, president, Nagarpalika Karamchari Sangthan, and Mr Krishan Kumar Anand, president, Snatan Dharam Mahavir Dal, staged a protest march from Deputy Commissioner Chowk to the bus stand here today. They removed “outrageous” posters and photographs displayed on walls on the route.

Earlier, addressing the rally the leaders said they had given one-month notice to the administration to get the “outrageous” photographs and posters removed.

Kapurthala, October 10
Baldev Singh, a jail inmate from Phul Kudiwal village of Jalandhar district, escaped from the police custody here today.

According to information, Baldev Singh managed to escape from the police custody when he was being brought back to Kapurthala district after producing him in a city court.

Head constable Raghubir Singh and constable Tarsem Lal were bringing him back to the jail on a rickshaw. A person on a motor cycle was chasing them.

As soon as the rickshaw stopped near the jail and the police personnel was giving the money to the rickshaw-puller, the jail inmate fled on the motor cycle. Baldev Singh was lodged in the jail for past some time reportedly in some theft cases. The SSP, Mr Rajiv Ahir, marked an inquiry into the incident to the DSP, Mr D.S. Uppal.

Batala, October 10
The police has seized one country-made pistol, six cartridges and 155 gm of smack from three persons.

The SSP, Mr L.K Yadav, told mediapersons here this evening that a case under the Arms Act was registered against Jarnail Singh at the Civil lines police station.

Jagjeet Singh and Jarnail Singh were booked under the NDPS Act at the same police station.