President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed the government to develop a legal mechanism to prevent the forcing of social workers in to perform cleaning other works, as well as widely discussed cases of window –dressing, (whitewashing), President ial spokesman Komil Allamjonov said at a briefing on Tuesday, which was aired live on Uzbekistan 24 and on Facebook.

Earlier Shavkat Mirziyoyev touched upon this topic during his visit to the Syrdarya province on April 13. He then said he was well aware of the real situation in the provinces, and named the hasty whitewashing efforts on the ground ahead of his trips as "an ill service." He also warned the officials of harsh punishments for forcing doctors, teachers and social sphere workers to perform improvement works, equating it to treason.

As Komil Allamdjonov brieifed, the Cabinet of Ministers will, on the President ’s instructions, prepare a resolution "strictly prohibiting engaging the public, especially healthcare and education workers, as well as students, to cleaning, agricultural and others works."

The resolution shall include measures aimed at increasing the staff of the public street cleaning services and improve their resources and technical base, with the experience of foreign countries to be taken into account, the press secretary noted.

"If the forcing of citizens to public works will persist, as the President noted, the punishment will be severe," he said. The violators will be held accountable under the criminal law.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev also set a number of tasks before the General Prosecutor's Office, Komil Allamjonov continued.

"The President instructed to bring to justice the officials responsible for the death of the Samarkand teacher Diana Enikeeva. At present, this fact is being examined, "he said.

"The President ordered to conduct a prosecutor's investigation on certain cases of window dressing. Among them - the construction of fake greenhouses along the road in the Kashkadarya province and installation of obsolete equipment and of a dysfunctional online registration system of patients in a Djizak province medical institutions during his visit."

"The President instructed to conduct a detailed inventory check for genuinity of projects presented to him during the visits to provinces. Should any wrongdoing be found, severe measures will be taken against the responsible persons", the press secretary added.

"In order to prevent window dressing, Shavkat Mirziyoyev ordered to induct permanent and strict control in the future. Executives who resort to window dressing or fail to take measures to prevent it will be severely punished."

"Cases of violations of Presidential instructions by officials must be covered in the media", Komil Allamjonov urged.

Following the criticism by the President and the briefing by the press secretary, the Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov held a government meeting Tuesday devoted to prohibition of forcing of social workers and students to labour which was attended by members of the government, governors, mayors of all levels and others.

PM Aripov reportedly said "By your actions, you are undermining the reform efforts undertaken by the leadership of our country, moreover, the political course of the head of state".

He reminded: the President, speaking in September at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, said "we have taken effective measures to eradicate the child and forced labor." However, cases of forcing social workers persist. In some provinces, this has become a "pandemic", he said.

He cited examples of forced labor, which, he said, serve as one of the main reasons for the public discontent and are a gross violation of legislation and international norms. The creation of a special parliamentary commission to ensure the guaranteed labor rights of citizens has not improved the situation.

Employees of preschool and schools in Khodzhaabad, Marhamat, Kurgantepa and Jalalkuduk districts of Andijan province have been regularly and forcibly attracted to sweeping streets, planting trees, litter collection and etc.

"How can teachers and doctors work properly if such things are happening? Instead of self improvement and teaching the children, they are engaged in completely different things. Medical workers instead of patronage, prevention of various diseases are involved in various forced labor.

Similar cases were observed in Gulistan (Syrdarya province), when employees of pre-schools were regularly involved in cleaning cemeteries.

In the Sergeli district of Tashkent, the kindergarten employees were forced to clean new buildings.

In the Pakhtachi district of the Samarkand province, employees of the Department of Public Education and teachers were involved in planting cotton seeds.

In the Kungrad District of Karakalpakstan, each vocational college was assigned to a farm for agricultural works. There are cases when teachers of colleges were involved in the demolition of illegally constructed buildings.

All teachers of 21 colleges in Urgench were involved in demolition of fences and buildings, the prime minister said.

PM stressed that the Public Works Fund was established in Uzbekistan under the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, however many governors and mayors still do not know how the fund works.

Money have been allocated to finance the recruitment of temporarily unemployed people for construction, repair and overhaul works, but many executives, "to showcase their loyalty, are forcing the staff of medical and educational institutions."

"Despite all the conditions created, they organized a forced labour system of budget financed organizations," he said.

In the Ferghana province 84 billion soums were allocated by the Fund with only 5 billion soums disbursed. In the Khorezm province in Q1 2 billion soums were spent to recruit 4,500 people, however a total of 40 billion soums were allocated. In the Tashkent province, only 1 billion soums out of 84 billion soums were disbursed.