KARACHI: SSIC women employees Rs30 million Sanctioned to clear 7-year wages
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Nov 23: Sindh government has sanctioned a sum of Rs30 million to compensate 96 teachers, mostly women, who have been running from pillar to post over the past seven years to get their salaries and arrears paid.
However, the teachers would be able to receive their dues before the upcoming Eid only if the concerned minister’s order is complied with in letter and spirit.
The case file be moved swiftly to complete all formalities in order to ensure that the amount is disbursed to the employees promptly and their families could celebrate Eid with peace of mind, the minister has ordered the relevant officials.
These teachers, employees of the Sindh Small Industries Corporation (women division), were rendered redundant when the SSIC women division centres were wound up due to financial constraints in 1996.
The centres were established during 1980 with the financial assistance of the federal government, informed sources told Dawn, pointing out that the employees had regularly been getting salaries till 1994-95 from the federal government. In the following year, the expenditure was borne by the Sindh government.
However, financial constraints forced both the governments to discontinue the payment. The status of the redundant employees also could not be decided till date.
As such, the affected employees could neither be retrenched nor be paid their salaries due to which they had been suffering a lot over the past seven years.
Eventually, the matter was referred to the provincial Minister for Labour, Muhammad Adil Siddiqui, who took up the case with the provincial finance department and got the amount of Rs30 million sanctioned.
Mr Siddiqui directed the labour department to expedite the processing of the file and asked the relevant officials to personally supervise preparation of cheques and their distribution to the employees before the upcoming Eid.
However, for such an employee, her cheque would be the last one to be drawn on government account as she would, most probably, no more be in service after being paid the dues, though none of the employees have so far been served a formal notice regarding termination of her service.
A spokesperson for the SSIC recalled that the government had chalked out a strategy to lay a network of industries throughout the province to ensure an effective check on the rising graph of unemployment.
The plan would also help the government bring a halt to the uncontrolled migration of job seekers from the interior of Sindh to the urban centres of the province.
The industrial network plan includes establishment of 15 more small industrial estates in different towns and setting up of two industrial parks to give a boost to the industrial, commercial and other economic activities that could put the province on the road to progress and prosperity.
It would also help generate a lot of employment opportunities for the citizens of Sindh, the spokesperson added.
She said that with the expansion of the industrial base, all those possessing technical know-how or skills, would be able to contribute to the growth of provincial economy.
Besides, the government has taken various initiatives under which people are being provided loans under self-employment schemes to help the skilled work force establish their own business concerns, the she pointed out.
