Revenue officials of Gomal Zam Dam project remain unpaid for 26 months

Say WAPDA was paying salaries, but payments stopped after K-P irrigation dept took over

PESHAWAR: The revenue staff of the Gomal Zam Dam project have demanded payment of salaries of last 26 months to the employees which they believe have been stopped after a row between the K-P Irrigation Department and Wapda authorities.

About 22 revenue staffers of the Gomal Zam Dam project based in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts have not been paid salaries due to lack of coordination between the departments involved in the process of releasing salaries.

The affected employees of the revenue department Sultan Muhammad, Sona Khan, Muhammad Afzal and Rehmat Ullah have complained that their salaries have been stopped for the last 26 months.

They said that they had apprised the commissioner Dera Ismail Khan and deputy commissioner Tank about their financial hardships due to stoppage of their salaries for over two years but the difficulty remained unsettled till date.

When contacted, an official of the Tank district administration passed on the buck to other departments.

He said that various departments were involved in the process of releasing salaries to the dam project employees and the problem remains unresolved due to lack of coordination.

Several meetings have been held to make arrangements for their salaries but all in vain, the official said requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

A revenue employee told that they were hired on contract basis in 2004 and had not been paid salaries since August 2015. He said that Wapda was paying the costs of land acquisition, security and their salaries till Aug 2015. However, he said, their salaries were stopped when the provincial irrigation department took over the payment of project expenses.

When contacted, Deputy Secretary Irrigation Misbahud Din told that payments have been made to the Wapda. The responsibility to resolve the employees problems relating to salaries rest with the Wapda, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2017.