Annual Report 2008-2009 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered and the accused Contractor was arrested and produced in the Court. The concerned Labour Officer was also instructed to take appropriate action under the Labour Laws. 4.112 The report received from the District Collector was examined by one of the Special Rapporteurs of NHRC. After examination of the report, it was recommended that 21 labourers whose names figured in the Panchnama, needed to be identified and recognized as bonded labourers and release certificates were required to be issued to them. Besides, necessary measures to rehabilitate them need to be taken up under the Land Based and Non-land Based or Art/ Craft/Skill Based Programmes of the Ministry of Labour. The NHRC directed the District Collector, Raisen to submit a compliance report in the matter. 4.113 The compliance report is awaited from the District Collector and the matter is under consideration of the Commission. 25. Rescue of Bonded Labourers from 38 Brick Kilns in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (Case No. 365/7/2006-2007) 4.114 The NHRC receives numerous complaints every year concerning bonded labour. Some of these complaints have been verified on the spot by different teams of NHRC. On-the-spot verification of these complaints has confirmed the existence of bonded labour system in the country. 4.115 On receipt of one such complaint from Shri Bapu Rao Pakhiddey, a social activist and lawyer, the NHRC in the month of February 2009 carried out a detailed investigation about the existing bonded labour system in two States of India. For this purpose, four teams from the Investigation Division of NHRC, each headed by a Senior Superintendent of Police, visited 38 brick kilns in the States of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The investigation conducted by the four teams revealed the following salient features about the prevalent bonded labour system: (a) The bonded labour system continues to exist in the State of Haryana. The NHRC teams were able to identify 98 bonded labourers in Jhajjar district of Haryana. All these bonded labourers were released with the help of local authorities as per the provisions contained in the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. (b) The labour contractors do pay advance to the labourers, which they actually take from the kiln owners. The payment of advance is however illegal as per the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. The labourers make use of this advance amount to repay their previous loans and to meet their travel expenses and purchase of essential items. (c) The provisions of Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 are hardly being followed by the labour contractors. (d) The labour contractors play a key role in harassing the bonded labourers as well as the Bhatta owners. In many instances, they provide labour against the advance and disappear 46