No relief expected: Transferred workers protest against WASA

Say government deliberately creating problems for citizens of Abbottabad

ABBOTTABAD: Workers from the sanitation department of the tehsil municipal administration and public health engineering department (PHED) on Wednesday staged a protest against the transfer of their services to WASA.

They threatened to extend their protest to the entire province if their demands were not met. On the call of sanitation workers union, public health department the workers belonging to technical and non-technical category held a meeting at District Council Hall, Abbottabad.

The office-bearers of the class IV association, public health engineering, sanitation staff union from different parts of Hazara division and K-P were in attendance.

Participants discussed the creation of WASA in Abbottabad and prospective transfer of services of public health engineering and sanitation department to the new department which was about to start work this month.

Malik Naveed, provincial chairman technical and non-technical class IV workers rejected the creation of WASA, adding that when the sanitation and PHED workers were already effectively extending their services to the residents of Abbottabad the creation of WASA has no justification.

He said that the poor performance of WASA in other cities was proof of it that it would bring no relief for the citizens and would only add to their miseries. Hameedullah Khan said that the government was deliberately going to create problems for the citizens of Abbottabad which would be resisted at every cost.

Sajawal Shah termed the creation of WASA and handing it over the services of water supply and sanitation as privatisation of these services and added that the performance of government services privatised earlier was a case in point that how the departments were destroyed and workers were deprived of their sources of livelihood.

He said that if the services of sanitation department and PHED were given to WASA in Abbottabad they would put up strong resistance extending their protest to the entire province. Later they also took out a protest procession outside the Abbottabad press club carrying banners and placards in support of their demands.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2017.