Krishna district SP Ravindranath Babu warns shop owners against recruiting child labour

Vijayawada: Krishna district superintendent of police M Ravindranath Babu has warned stringent action would be taken on the employers for appointing child labour in their shops, hotels and other work places. He said recruiting the child labour is an offence and the owners will be punished as per the law. He appealed to the parents of the children particularly the child labour to send their children to the schools.

As part of the Operation Muskan, the district SP interacted with the parents of the child labour at the AR Grounds in Machilipatnam on Monday. The district police launched the two-day Operation Muskan as per the instructions of the DGP D Gautam Sawang to rescue the neglected children, orphans and child labour in the district. The Krishna district police conducted Operation Muskan two days on October 28 and 29. As a continuation to the programme, the district police on Monday launched the two-day Operation Muskan. Police in association with the staff of Woman and child welfare, Labour and other departments searched the bus stations, hotels, public places, parks to rescue the children aged below 14 years of age.

SP M Ravindranath Babu during the interaction with the parents said poverty is the prime reason for the child labour menace. He said the Government has reopened the schools on Monday and children can go schools. He said the government is distributing the uniforms, school bag, textbooks, notebooks and imparting education free of cost.

Representatives of the NGOs, officials of other departments also spoke on the occasion. Trainee IPS officer Preran Kumar, Additional SP Satyanarayana, Special Branch DSP Dharmendra and other officials attended the event. The district police on Monday rescued 122 children, 106 of them were boys and 16 girls.