LAHORE: The Punjab Trade Employees (Amend­­ment) Act, 1943, which was passed in the last session of the Punjab Assembly, has received the assent of His Excellency the Governor-General, announces an Extraordinary Punjab Government Gazette.

An important amendment which has been made in the original Act lays down that “No young person shall be employed about the business of a shop or commercial establishment earlier than eight o’clock in the morning or later than seven o’clock in the evening, and that the total number of hours worked by a young person exclusive of intervals for meals and rest shall not exceed 42 hours in any one weeks or seven hours in any day.…”

[Meanwhile, as reported from Madras,] a cobra found itself a snug perch behind the mirror in the bathroom of a second class compartment of the Grand Trunk Express at Madras Central Station. The train was in the siding and a carpenter who went to repair the damaged frame of the mirror felt something soft and slippery. The train was shunted to the platform and one of the railway staff who ventured into the room found the cobra with its head above a tumbler and the body coiled underneath. It was caught and killed.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2019