District Administration Rajouri rebuts concocted news report

‘Such irresponsible reporting has only dented credibility of newspaper’

5 Dariya News

Rajouri 24-Dec-2017

The District Administration, Rajouri has termed a news item appearing in today’s edition of Greater Jammu newspaper as poor appreciation of facts leading to concocted, fabricated and distorted news titled “Child Labour part of CM’s event as teenagers serve food to officials”. Responding to the news item, a spokesman of the District Administration Rajouri said the two points raised in the news item are completely false and have been reported evidently without verification of the basic facts. “On verification of the photograph of a catering worker published as “Child Labour” from the catering company and special team deputed to check the records it was revealed from the First Admission Register as well as the village birth register that the date of birth of the employee is 25 April 1999 thereby his age being 18 years and 8 months and does not fall under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 which prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations,” he said. He said the employee of the catering company identified as Sourabh Kumar S/O Pawan Singh R/O Devak, Rajouri has also obtained an Aadhar card based on valid birth certificate in the year 2016 which confirms the age as 18 years and 8 months. Ascertaining age from the facial and physical features is a poor fictional work of the reporter rather the scribe should have enquired from District Administration for verification of his observation before making it look like sensational news linked to the visit of Chief Minister. The verification further revealed that all the other 17 employees of the Catering Company are aged between 21 to 43 years and due verification has been conducted under rules.   Secondly, the news report is completely false on the account that Labour Commissioner J&K was present at the venue. “The Labour Commissioner was neither a part of the Chief Minister’s meeting nor he was in the district on the said day,” the spokesman said. Terming the news report as malicious and mischievous, the District Administration Rajouri said it expects the Editor of the newspaper to carry a clarification with same zeal on the front page.“We also expect that action shall be taken against the reporter for false reporting as Greater Jammu has always been standing for very high professional standards and such a false report apart from being an occasional aberration also appears to be damaging the reputation and credibility of the newspaper,” the spokesman said.