HYDERABAD, July 20: The district vigilance committee on bonded labour has recommended to the Sindh Board of Revenue to allot at least 16 acres of government land to each family of the freed bonded labour.

The committee at a meeting held here on Tuesday assigned the EDO, law, for preparing the budget for litigation of bonded labour within three days. The meeting decided that an account under the head of legal aid service unit for bonded labour of Hyderabad would be opened in a bank which would be operated jointly by the EDO, law, and a member from an NGO working for bonded labour.

The committee also sought financial assistance from the Ministry for Labour to meet expenses to be incurred on litigation of bonded labour. It approved a proposal of the district government for having the office of the committee in rooms 26 and 27 at the district council shopping centre, Fatima Jinnah Road.

The meeting was told that in addition to a block allocation of Rs500,000, the rent of the committee office would be paid by the district government. It appointed a three-member committee, headed by the vigilance committee secretary, to collect information material and bring out a magazine on activities of the vigilance committee and issues related to the bonded labour.

The EDO, community development, Mohammad Ibrahim Qureshi, who is also the secretary of the committee, presided over the meeting. The district labour officer, Abdul Sattar Dawoodpoto, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan representatives Ali Hassan and Madam Nasreen Shakil and others attended the meeting.

TMA: The taluka municipal administration, Latifabad, notified here on Tuesday that the Super Society Market, Autobhan Road, was a disputed property and cases in this regard were pending decisions in various courts.

People have been advised not to enter into any agreement about this property with any individual or organization. In a press statement, the TMA said the Hyderabad Railway Employees Cooperative Housing Society had filed a suit in 2002 and also requested for a stay order and submitted an application against Taluka Nazim Abdul Jabbar Khan and the Taluka

Municipal Officer, Abdul Majeed Rajput, for contempt of court in respect of survey-27, Autobhan, which had been rejected by the senior civil judge ofHyderabad. The statement further said the seventh additional district judge had also rejected an appeal against the order of the lower court on July 19.