After employees’ protest, CDA unable to open technical bids

Union says decision be delayed till IHC issues verdict on transfer of workers

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) could not open technical bids for a solid waste disposal plant in the federal capital amid protests by the employees union on Thursday.

The union staged a protest outside the office of the CDA Chairman when technical bids were supposed to be opened.

Employees kept on chanting slogans which compelled IMC Mayor, who also holds the post of CDA Chairman, Sheikh Anser Aziz to stop the bids and speak with the protesters.

Led by former CBA General Secretary Chaudhary Yasin, the employees were of the view that as a case regarding the transfer of employees from CDA to IMC was still pending in the Islamabad High Court, any decision on privatizing waste disposal in the capital should be postponed till after the court announces its verdict.

The union leaders were of the view that by privatising solid waste disposal, around 900 CDA employees could lose their jobs. They demanded that until the CBA union’s election, the matter of outsourcing solid waste disposal must be postponed.

Aziz assured the union leaders that till the court’s decision, the outsourcing process would remain paused.

“Garbage collection and transportation in thickly populated areas of federal capital including sectors G-6 to G-11 and sectors I-10 and I-11 is already being carried out by private parties,” IMC Director Sanitation Sardar Khan Zimri told The Express Tribune. 

The IMC had invited technical bids from interested private parties for collection and transportation of solid waste in the urban and rural areas of the capital. In response, four parties had submitted their technical bids for the project including two Chinese firms, one Spanish and a local firm.

However, this was down from the nine firms to whom the IMC had issued tender documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2017.