PESHAWAR, Dec 15: Mine labourers in the NWFP were on Thursday given the status of industrial workers and a minister announced that Rs17.85 million would be paid in compensation to the families of 119 workers who had been killed in the mine accidents since 1999.

Speaking at a news conference at the provincial information department here on Thursday, Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam said that the NWFP government had registered about 9,000 mine workers. These workers, he added, belonged to Swat and Shangla districts but had been working in different parts of the province.

He said rough estimates showed that there were about 100,000 mine workers in the province.

The minister said the decision to give miners the status of industrial workers had been taken at a meeting of the Workers Welfare Board held in Peshawar recently. The meeting approved a death grant of Rs150,000 for each worker, he said, adding it would be applicable from 1999.

He said the government would provide mine workers with free education, and residential and medical facilities. He said a labour colony would be constructed in Cherat for mine workers.

The minister said that lease of all those mine-holders who were not working on the site would be scrapped. In reply to a question, he said five acres had been leased to each mine-holder.