CM Baqar orders retrieval of labourers’ flats from illegal occupation

He ordered repair, renovation of Workers Welfare Board apartments

KARACHI:

Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has ordered the district administration of Hyderabad to retrieve the flats constructed for labourers in Gulshan-e-Maymar from illegal possession and carry out repair and renovation at the earliest.

Presiding over a meeting of the labour department the caretaker CM directed the Law Minister Omar Soomro to visit the falts along with the secretary of labour and take immediate steps to repair them and allot to the registered labourers.

During the meeting, the chief minister was informed that the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) is responsible for the development, construction of flats and houses, as well as providing free of cost quality education to workers' children, financial aid to purchase uniforms, shoes, books, and bags, arrange grants in aid for the marriage of workers' daughters, post-matric scholarships and financial aid to legal heirs of the deceased worker.

The meeting was told that from year 2018 to 2023 an amount of Rs1,333.13 million has been disbursed as grant-in-aid to labourers in the head of marriages. Similarly, Rs244.456 million scholarships were provided to 3,175 students besides death grants in 4,360 cases.

The CM was informed that the WWB has 11,565 flats, 6,257 houses, 5,443 plots, 23 schools and colleges, kidney centre Landhi being run by SESSI, NICVD Hospital Sukkur, and 10 vocational training centres.

The chief minister was told that the 128 labour flats were under occupation in Hyderabad Labour Colony.

At this, the CM directed the deputy commissioner Hyderabad to get the flats vacated from illegal occupants and hand them over to the labour dept so that they could be allotted to the registered workers.

Besides Minister Labour Omar Soomro, the meeting was also attended by Advocate General Hassan Akbar, PSCM Raheem Shaikh, Advocate Shabir Shah, Chairman SRB Asif Memon, Secretary Labour Laeeq Memon, and other concerned officers.