Deprived city: HDA employees suspend water supply, drainage network

HYDERABAD: Demanding the restoration of hundreds of sacked employees and payment of unpaid salaries, the staff of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) began a protest campaign on Thursday. The protest has caused temporary suspension of water supply and closure of the drainage network.

On Thursday, the protesting HDA Employees Union (CBA) stopped the drainage system for over two hours in Latifabad's unit 9. The union had given a deadline of September 1 to the authorities and provincial government to accept their demands.

CBA general secretary Abdul Qayum Bhatti said they will block the system in Qasimabad Town today (September 2). "If the government doesn't respond after a few days of our protest we will permanently block the water supply and drainage," he warned.

A delegation of the union met the district administration of Hyderabad but the negotiations reportedly failed as their demand for the reinstatement of all the employees was not accepted, according to the union's vice president, Imtiaz Kolachi.

The union claims that the HDA fired between 1,600 and 1,800 workers a few months ago while giving them false hope that a large number of them would be restored as regular employees. They also allege that the HDA and its subsidiary, the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), have not paid them salaries since June.

The HDA authorities, meanwhile, claim that an unusually high number of staff on unsanctioned posts was hired during the previous two governments. They associate the weak financial health of both the HDA and WASA with the burden of these employees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2016.