HDA seeks Rs508m in grant to pay workers

Employees have been staging a token hunger strike against non-payment of salaries for days

KARACHI:

As the token hunger strike by the unpaid workers of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) continues, the authority has requested the Sindh government for a financial grant of Rs508 million.

In a letter to the Sindh local government secretary, HDA director general (DG) Ghulam Muhammad Qaimkhani urged the government to release the grant before Eidul Azha so that the employees could be paid salaries ahead of the religious festival.

In his letter, the DG briefed the secretary about the financial hardships with which the HDA and its subsidiary, the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), were struggling.

"WASA is facing a severe shortage of funds required for the payment of salaries, pension, chemicals, fuel and other expenses," he maintained. He further stated that in the last financial year, the provincial government released Rs509 million to the HDA, which added Rs182 million to this from its own revenue to pay salaries and pensions, amounting to Rs691 million.

The protest

Meanwhile, the HDA employees union, whose leaders and members have been observing a token hunger strike outside the Hyderabad Press Club, claimed that that the authority had been defaulting on the payment of workers' salaries for six to nine months.

"There are arrears on account of unpaid salaries, due for six months for regular employees and nine months for those on contract," claimed the union's Abdul Qayum Bhatti.

The strike was called off for a day on Thursday, with the union's members demanding tangible assurances by Friday that their salaries and pensions would be released.

The employees' unions also suspended the water supply and stopped the drainage at pumping stations as their last resort. They have also taken recourse to this extreme form of protest several times during the past few years.

 

Assurances

Separately, a delegation of the HDA Mehran Workers Union met Qaimkhani, who briefed them about his efforts to secure a financial grant from the provincial government.

The union's general secretary Muhammad Aslam Abbassi said they had been assured they would be paid before Eid.