Unpaid salaries: Wasa employees threaten to cut off water supply to Gilgit

Say cheques given earlier for one month’s salaries bounced.

GILGIT:

Over 1,200 employees of Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasa) Gilgit office have threatened to stop water supply to consumers if they were not paid their pending salaries by Monday.

Wasa Employees’ Union General Secretary Sher Ghazi told the media that the authority had promised to pay the employees their three months of outstanding salaries by Monday. “However, in case we are not paid, we want to forewarn that we will go on strike,” he said.

Over 30,000 residents of Gilgit town are expected to face water shortage for as along as the strike continues. Sonikote, Kashrote, Barmas ,Nagral, Jutial, Zulfiqarabad, Amphery and Majini Muhalla areas will be most affected due to the strike.

The general secretary said that the union was set on initiating the strike from Thursday, but withdrew the call after Wasa’s Executive Engineer Hidayat Khan sought time till July 8 to clear the dues. The chief engineer maintained that he wanted to consult the issue with Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah, who was out of town at the moment.

A Wasa employee, who is also a member of the employees’ union, said they were given cheques for one month’s salary but the cheques bounced. “It is impossible for us now to make ends meet ends,” he said.

Despite repeated attempts, Khan could not be contacted for comments. According to Wasa Gilgit administration, Khan had gone to oversee repair work in Karga where a portion of a water channel was damaged on Wednesday, suspending water supply to Gilgit.

An official of Wasa Gilgit office, Mushtaq, the channel was damaged due to an increase in water flow. He assured that the fault will be fixed and water supply will be resumed soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2012.