TMA employees protest non-payment of salaries

AG closes PLA account; thousands await monthly wages, pensions

HARIPUR:

Thousands of employees of the Town Municipal Administration (TMA) staged a protest against the non-payment of salaries and pensions due to the closure of the PLA account by the office of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Accountant General for the past three months.

Addressing the participants of the protest demonstration, officials of the TMA Employees Union said depriving the employees and pensioners of their legitimate rights in the ongoing period of inflation was equivalent to their economic murder.

“If the illegal and inhuman ban is not lifted, we will go on a complete strike across the province and will also stop the provision of all services,” they warned.

According to the details, the K-P Accountant General has closed the PLA accounts of TMAs across the province due to which the employees of Haripur and other TMAs have not only been deprived of their salaries for the past three months but the retired employees of TMA have also not received their pensions for the same period.

Protesting against what they called an illegal and inhumane restriction imposed by the AG office, members of the TMA Employees Union stopped their work by going on a complete strike on Thursday.

The protestors said: “Our salaries are already very low in the current high inflation which makes it difficult for us to survive. Now the AG office has even stopped the payment of our meagre salaries and pensions of the past three months which is completely unfair.”

They warned to intensify their protest and go on a complete strike by stopping the provision of municipal services in the entire province in case the ‘step-mother-like’ treatment towards them did not stop. “Where is the justice in depriving us of our salaries despite making us perform our duties?”

They demanded the chief minister, the minister of local government and other relevant authorities take notice of the situation and make efforts for efforts for its redressal.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2023.