AGARTALA, May 6 (TIWN): Continuing with the series of wrongdoings of the Manik Sarkar led state Govt., the Tripura High Court on Tuesday found out another loophole in the state Govt.’s rule. In a judgment passed by the Division bench of Tripura High Court comprising of Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice S C Das, the court ruled in favour of the deprived PWD engineers and said that the new rule of promotion of the engineers on the basis of performance in the promotional examinations does not have any merit in this case and the engineers should be promoted or recruited based on the old rules. It may be mentioned here that the ST engineers in the state PWD department were kept deprived of their due promotion under the new promotion rule adopted by the state Govt. even after attaining the eligibility criteria for promotion.

 In yet another hearing on the same day in the Division bench of Chief Justice Deepak  Gupta, the court took steps to safeguard the future of  child welfare in the state.Giving their observation on the suo moto Public Interest Litigation (PIL) concerning the future of child education, use of child labour and the child welfare in the state, the court asked the depatrtmental heads of  Department of Labour, Department of Social Welfare and Social Education to file  personal affidavit in the High Court stating the steps taken  by the departments for child education, child safety and child health in workplaces for hearing.

It may be mentioned here that the rampant use of child labour in the state was criticized by various section of the society including various NGOs over the years.

Under much pressure from various quarters, the Tripura government had constituted State commission for protection of child rights to comply with recommendations of the national commission during Dec, 2013. Senior CPI (M) leader Rupa Ganguly was made the first chairperson of the State commission.

The commission was empowered with the responsibility to protect child rights under relevant laws. But over the years since its inception, the commission was not seen to perform its activities as within the close vicinity of the capital city, thousands of child labourers are still being engaged in the brick fields and brick kilns with active backing from the local CPI(M) leaders.

Though the national commission for protection of child rights first approached the state government in March 2008 to create the State commission, the commission was constituted in 2013.

The national commission had visited the state to oversee the deplorable condition of children in Mizoram Reang refugee camps in North Tripura on a complaint by a New Delhi based human rights organization during Dec 2011.

The State commission was given the responsibilities to undertake welfare action for distressed children, work under ambit of child labour (protection and regulation) act, 1986, protect children from getting employment in business and domestic areas and ensure child health rights and protection of juvenile justice system.

India is home to more than 12.6 million children who are forced to work in order to survive. These children are working as domestic help, on streets, in factories and farmlands silently suffering abuse. Among these 12.6 lakh children, also lie the children working in various brick fields and brick kilns of the state.