On call: In Hyderabad, city staff’s salaries hang by a thread

Nearly 3,000 employees had not been paid for six months.

HYDERABAD: A potential disaster was averted in Hyderbad as nearly 3,000 employees of the city’s water and sanitation agency (Wasa) called off their strike on Friday after they were paid one month’s salary.

They had brought to a screeching halt the water supply and drainage in the city last week and again on Thursday. The water utility owes around Rs210 million to its employees, who had not been paid for the last six months.

They had also been on strike for four days last week, but had called it off after meeting Hyderabad Metropolitan Corporation administrator Barkat Rizvi last Friday. He had assured them that they will be paid before Eid.

The Hyderabad Development Authority’s (HDA) joint action committee had staged a demonstration outside Wasa’s Jamshoro Road plant on Thursday. Another disgruntled employee, Raja Palari, said that this was the fifth time this year that Wasa workers had been led to believe that they would be paid. “The government has discredited itself. We will not be mislead this time,” he said.

Apart from not paying its employees, Wasa has also defaulted on its power bills. The supply to around 98 Wasa and HDA installations were disconnected by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company on October 18. It has been running the stations on generators since then. Wasa and HDA collectively owe the power company Rs2.74 billion. The water utility’s managing director, Saleemuddin Ahmed, claims that various government agencies owe it a total of Rs7 billion. The agency has also come under fire for its dismal revenue collection, as it gathers only half of what it spends every month, or Rs20 million, from customers in the form of utility charges.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.