Now, police to assist cashiers en route to brick kilns with labourers’ pay

Meerut: To alleviate a rising sense of insecurity among brick kiln owners, Meerut Police has issued an advisory to kiln managers to inform the police whenever their cashiers transport cash to the site for payment to labourers.

According to the advisory issued by Meerut superintendent of police (rural), the police station concerned will provide an escort to the cashier to avoid any untoward incident. On Monday, a large number of brick kiln owners met the senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Meerut, J Ravinder Goud, demanding the facility after Rs 1.5 lakh was looted from a cashier in a village.

According to the general secretary of District Brick Kiln Association, Pawan Mittal, “On Saturday, Pankaj Gupta, owner of Sangam Brickfield at Fatehpur village, was held up at gunpoint by half-a-dozen robbers and robbed of Rs 1.50 lakh. So we had approached the SSP who had assured us of appropriate action.”

There are close to 150 brick kilns spread around rural Meerut, where approximately 400 labourers work.

According to SP (rural), Rajesh Kumar, “We are committed to protecting the traders of our region. We have issued the advisory to brick kiln owners to inform us every time cash is transported to kilns and we will give protection to them. Besides, in case there is any anti-social element or criminal who trying to extort money, we must be informed about them and we will ensure strict action against them.”

According to Navin Gupta, president, Meerut Joint Traders’ Association, “We welcome police’s gesture of providing security to brick kiln owners, but the same steps should be adopted for other trades also. There is no denying the fact that law and order situation has indeed worsened in recent times.”
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