CM orders removal of illegal settlers from 1,000 flats

He was informed of issues and progress while chairing labour dept meeting

KARACHI: Illegal occupants in the 1,000 apartments built for workers on Northern Bypass must be removed immediately, said Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Wednesday.

“This is intolerable and this ejection must be made within two months,” he said while presiding over a labour department meeting at CM House.



Briefing the CM, labour secretary Rasheed Solangi said that people affected by the 2010 floods illegally occupied the 1,000 apartments constructed along Northern Bypass and now refuse to vacate them. The CM ordered the chief secretary to get the flats vacated by the police and Rangers within two months. “These flats are meant for labourers and they must be given to them. I will not tolerate these `qabza groups’ anymore,” he said.

Solangi said that the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) has built 7,097 flats and 1,898 houses in different labour colonies. The colony in Landhi has to 1,128 flats and 850 houses, SITE has 887 flats and 800 houses, North Karachi has 154 flats, Korangi has 920 flats and 248 houses and Gulshan-e-Maymar has 1,000 flats. The colony along the Northern Bypass will have 3,008, which are still being constructed.

Education

He also said that there were 24 WWB model schools all over the province, of which 22 are functional. The WWB also has two intermediate colleges where 5,743 children of workers are being educated. “The board provides uniforms, shoes and books to the students free of cost,” he explained.

Talking about the WWB’s scholarship and welfare programmes, the labour secretary said the board gives Rs500,000 as a death grant and Rs100,000 as dowry grant, adding that the annual scholarships are at the rate of Rs19,600 for post-matriculation, Rs32,000 for graduation and Rs42,000 for post-graduate.





Chief secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon claimed he had reports stating that the labour department had failed to implement the minimum wage, which, according to Solangi, is Rs13,000. “Our commitment is to the workers and this commitment must be realised in true letter and spirit,” said Memon.

SESSI

Solangi talking about the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (Sessi) said that its main objective was to provide medical facilities to secured workers. Some 29,755 factories with 759,339 workers are registered with Sessi. It has also registered 49,902 shops with 124,338 workers, he told the participants of the meeting.

The labour secretary said that Sessi has five hospitals and 42 dispensaries all over Sindh. He said that Sessi’s annual budget was Rs8 billion with a Rs5 billion development budget. It has a Rs3 billion surplus budget. “The labour department must have emergency centres and good hospitals along the Super Highway, National Highway near Dhabeji Industrial Estate and in all the industrial cities like Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas,” said the CM.

Why do Karachiites love to live in apartments?

Child labour

He also issued directives to the labour department to work strongly against child labour. “This is a serious issue and I feel that drastic measures have not been taken to eliminate child labour,” he said. “Since it was the commitment of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, therefore it is the commitment of my government to eliminate child labour.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2016.