09 November 2004	Tuesday	25 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Nov 8: Claiming that sanitary workers are the most punctual and dedicated employees, a councillor of the Union Council Mauripur, Keamari Town , has complained that the workers are being discriminated upon in the disbursement of pension and provision of other basic facilities in their localities.

The councillor, Sham Lal, who is also a minority leader, told PPI that sanitary workers appeared to be the only government employees majority of whom was not being paid pension.

"They are deprived of the facilities because they are illiterate and have been living in poor living conditions," he remarked.

However, another councillor of the same UC claimed that there was no question of discrimination with a particular staff as the sanitary workers of the entire local government were treated under same rules.

Santosh Kumar, a sanitary inspector, referring to Mr Sham Lal's statement, said the sanitary staff of all the 18 towns were faced with the same situation.

Mr Kumar pointed out that sanitary staff was not also being paid any extra money for extra work. In this regard, he pointed out that on the occasion of Eidul Azha, the staff had to do extraordinarily strenuous work of garbage lifting and cleaning for four days. But no extra payment was made to them for the work, he added.

Giving example of a woman worker, Basanti, who lives in Bin Qasim Town, Mr Kumar said she had to work because her husband Kirshan Lal had been bed-ridden for long after losing his right leg while on duty. He said that man was bitten by some poisonous creature.

He had spent Rs80,000 on his treatment but he could not recover fully. The concerned department, however, did not pay a single penny to him for the treatment.

Christians, Hindus and Muslims are assigned different jobs in the department. Similarly, men and women also are given different jobs. While women sweep streets, men undertake cleaning of manholes. The sanitary workers begin their duty in early morning.-PPI