A high level Steering Committee meeting for Elimination of Child Labour from all the brick kilns of the province held under the convener-ship of Minister Labour & Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, at Civil Secretariat, here today. Matters related to different measures taken by concerned departments to eliminate child labour from brick kilns came under discussion. Minister Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan, Chief Secretary Punjab Khizar Hayat Gondal, IG Punjab Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, secretaries of Home, Labour, Schools, Industries and representatives of concerned departments attended the meeting. It was informed in the meeting that Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has great concern over child labour being plasticized at brick kilns of the province and has issued strict directions to make all out efforts to free the society from this menace. Directions to take strict legal action against violators have been conveyed to the administration of all the district governments, he further said. Minister Labour Raja Ashfaq Sarwar apprised the meeting about concrete measures being taken by Punjab Labour & Human Resource Department for the enrolment of the out of schools children of brick kilns workers in government schools according to the vision of Chief Minister Punjab to educate this vulnerable section of society. Government has made penalties and fines more strict in this regard by approving Restrictions of Employment of Children Act, recently passed by the Punjab Cabinet to discourage child labour at all levels.
