04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

BADIN, July 3: A token hunger strike being observed by the staff of the district Zakat committee continued for the third consecutive day here on Friday.

They are protesting against non-payment of salaries for the last four months and their appointment on contract system.

The hunger strike was observed outside the Aiwan-i-Sahafat where nazims Mir Hassan Panhwar and Mohammad Idrees Nuhrio as well as councillors joined the Zakat staff. Representatives of social welfare organizations also visited the protest camp.

In a joint statement, the zakat employees said that they had not received their salaries for the last four months because of which their families were starving. They recalled that they were deprived of their two-month salaries last year.

They demanded that contract system should be abolished as it put them at the mercy of the district zakat officer who could remove them any time he wished and hire his favourites.

They also demanded that their salaries should be drawn from the account of government servants and not from the PLA account which was basically meant for disbursement of funds to deserving people. In case Zakat funds were not released, they could not get their salaries through that account, they added.

They appealed to the central as well as the provincial zakat council to redress their grievances as soon as possible.

BUDGET: The taluka council of Badin approved a surplus budget for 2004-5 in a meeting held here on Wednesday.

The session was presided over by convener Ali Bux Notkani, who said that no new tax had been imposed in the budget while special attention was to be paid to development schemes.

Ali Bux Notkani said that a lion's share of the budget had been allocated for 22 major schemes which included those of drinking water supply, roads, drains, streets and health.

The development outlay was Rs11.3 million while Rs0.215 million had been earmarked for student scholarships, he said and added that Rs0.155 had been reserved for social welfare organizations.