After protests: Sacked staff to be reinstated

HYDERABAD: After a week-long protest of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) employees union, the higher-ups have relented to their demand regarding reinstatement of recently-sacked staff.

The protests entailing water shortage and sewage pools were to be expanded to the whole district but as citizens’ complaints kept mounting, HDA officials met with union’s delegation on Thursday. A press release issued by the HDA stated that an unspecified number of employees from among some 1,600 contractual staff of HDA and its subsidiary, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), will be restored. It further assured that before the Eid holidays, the unpaid salary for June will be released while the remaining salaries of July and August will be paid as soon as the HDA gets funds from the finance department.

“Around 950 posts out of 1,800 sanctioned posts in Wasa are vacant,” the union’s secretary-general, Abdul Qayyum Bhatti, told The Express Tribune. “We demanded that all these vacancies should be filled from among the 1,300 sacked staff of Wasa.”

“We don’t know as yet how many [of the fired staff] will be restored,” said Bhatti. “But we will resume the protest if any new contractual appointments are made.”

The additional managing director of Wasa, Saleemuddin, told The Express Tribune that the government has authorised Wasa to select the staff for reinstatement in view of their requirement.

However, he did not confirm the number of the staff that will be restored. “A notification for the restoration has been issued but the orders [for the reappointment] will be given on Friday,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2016.