CHITRAL: Tehsil Municipal Administration i.e. TMA Chitral staff have been on strike for the last ten days due to non-payment of their salaries of 135 staff for the last 6 months. . Due to the strike of sanitation workers, apart from the Women and Children Hospital in Chitral, District Headquarters Hospital, Shahi Masjid Road, Ataliq Chowk and various bazaars turned into piles of dirt where the stench and smill of the wastage causing naissance for the passers-by to walk. There are many difficulties to shopkeepers too. The TMA staff also locked the Tehsil Municipal Officer’s office and staged a a sit in front of TMO office. Our correspondent visited the protest camp and tried to know their problems. Umar Atiq says that I have been working in TMA for the last 13 years. We are not getting salaries for the last six months. We did not buy new clothes and shoes for our children neither on the Eid ul Fitar nor on the Eid ul Azha. People around us were making sacrifices on the Eid, but due to our lack of salaries, we were only looking at them with sad and frustrated eyes.
Zar Bahadur Khan is his supervisor, he says that we can’t even pass through this road because of the shame of taking loans from the shopkeepers, when we pass in front of the shop, the shopkeepers are demanding for their loan. He said that we are regretting that we are cleaning the entire city, we have been sitting on strike for the last ten days, but still neither the Deputy Commissioner nor the Assistant Commissioner or any other responsible person has come to us so that to listen our problems. He said that if our genuine demand was not fulfilled, we will be forced to take stern action, including blocking the road and suspending the supply of drinking water to the people.
Khursheed Ali Sanitation Supervisor says that he is responsible for cleaning the entire Chitral Bazar. He has 18 sweepers and four vehicles. We have not been paid for the last six months due to which we have been on strike for the last ten days. He expressed great regret that so far no responsible officer has even asked about our condition. He said that for ten days there has been foul smell in the market and people are facing a lot of problems due to bad smell. In our houses, our children are starving.
Abdul Rahim is also an employee of TMA who is sitting in the strike camp. He says that we were forced to sit on strike due to non-payment of salaries, but so far no one has even asked us about our condition. He said that our strike will continue until we not get our salaries,.
On this occasion, some political activists and lawyers’ community also visited the strike camp and expressed solidarity with them.
In this regard, Tehsil Municipal Officer Muhammad Hanif was also contacted and tried to know his position, who said that he has sent a written report to the higher authorities to release the salary of these employees and we will try to get payment of these class IV employees. Especially the salaries of those who clean the city all day can be released as soon as possible. When he was asked that some circles are now alleging that more than 150 employees were recruited in TMA Chitral on political basis, most of them are not working and are drawing salaries at home, he said that we have dismissed 70 employees on the instructions of the provincial government.
By Gul Hamaad Farooqi .
