The Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned the secretary environment and secretary labour Punjab in person on December 3 and sought report over a human tragedy incident wherein 52 labourers died in Gujranwala and Dera Ghazi Khan districts due to silicosis, an incurable disease that cripples lungs.
The three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-Ul-Mulk comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan resumed hearing of the case on an application filed by human rights activists Usama Khawar and Yahya Farid Khwaja, members of the Public Lawyers’ Front (PLF).
The court also expressed annoyance over nominal penalty to the owners of stone crushing machines. During the course of proceedings, Punjab Additional Attorney General Abdul Razzaq Khan informed the court that 18 labourers died in Gujranwala while 34 died in Dera Ghazi Khan due to environmental pollution.
He said the owner of stone crushing machines was fined Rs 0.360 million and a committee was formed to register First Information Report (FIR) against these machines owners. He said the committee would also fix responsibility against the accused.
Abdul Razzaq Khan told the bench that the government had approved Rs 5.4 million as compensation amount for the deceased of Gujranwala district while the government was considering to disburse Rs 0.5 million to each deceased of DG Khan district. On this, the chief justice questioned that why the government did not receive compensatory amount from the crushing machines owners.
According to details, work at the factories involves feeding stones to grinding machines to break them into smaller pieces and to ultimately turn them into powder.
In the absence of any dust control mechanism, labourers mix powdered stone with boric acid with the help of shovels and then pack the mixture in bags with their hands or shovels for distribution. The shovelling of powdered silica and boric acid raises a lot of dust causing the labourers to inhale massive amounts of dust.
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