March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

KARACHI, March 26: The Municipal Workers Trade Unions Alliance (MWTUA) has rejected the city government’s decision to award a contract of waste disposal in Karachi to a Chinese company and described the plan as “impracticable and against the interests of sanitation workers.”

“We have serious reservations over the agreement between the CDGK and the Chinese company,” Syed Zulfiqar Shah (Chairman) and Fareed Awan (General Secretary) of the alliance said, adding that the deal had put the livelihood of 11,000 sanitation workers in jeopardy.

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, they pointed out that the CDGK had undertaken to pay $4.8 million a month to the Chinese firm which came to Rs3.6298 billion annually, a very big amount as compared to the annual contract amounting to Rs762.2 million awarded in 2006.

“The deal would harm the interests of 5,500 families earning livelihood from the 400 recycling industrial units operating in the city,” they said.—PPI