SUKKUR, July 29: Employees of the Municipal Department Jacobabad town observed a tool-down strike on Monday against non-payment of their salaries and pensions for the last three months.

The employees wore black ribbons around their arms and hoisted a black flag on the municipal office building to register their protest. Later, the male and female staff along with their brooms took out a rally from the Taluka Municipal Office marching through different roads and arrived in front of the local press club where they held a sit-in and raised slogans. As a result the DC Office Road was blocked and the flow of vehicular traffic was suspended for some time.

Several leaders of the sanitation union addressing the rally claimed that they were on the verge of starvation as they had not been receiving their salaries and pensions for the past three months. They also said that with Eid close at hand they had been unable to buy Eid clothes for their children.

They said that despite their protests no one from the administration had approached them to listen to their grievances. They warned that they would be compelled to take extreme action by unloading tractor trolleys of garbage outside the houses of officers if they were not paid their outstanding salaries. They urged the district administration to pay attention towards their salaries’ issue or they would observe strike for an indefinite period and the district administration would be responsible for the lack of sanitation in Jacobabad town.

Additionally, the municipal employees of Thull town district Jacobabad also observed a tool-down strike on Monday against the non-payment of last two months’ salaries. Thus, they too took out a rally from the municipal office. Local leaders of different nationalist parties including Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Sindh United Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz and Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto, and social organisations such as Sindhi Adabi Sangat, Shehri and leaders of Lady Health Workers also participated in the demonstration. The rally after passing through different roads reached in front of the local press club where participants staged a protest demonstration, and raised slogans demanding their long overdue salaries.

Speaking at the meeting, the leaders strongly criticised the taluka municipal administration for withholding two months’ salaries of the employees and insisted on immediate release of employees’ salaries from higher authorities.

As the sanitary workers went on a tool-down strike in Thull town, it wore a dirty look with heaps of garbage visible at several localities and water overflowed from choked drains and the main gutter line in Riaz Chowk, Rahbar Chowk, Baloch Colony, main bazaar, Anaj Mandi Road, Sarafa Bazaar, Soomra Shopping Centre, Hindi Bazaar due to which people had a difficult time in moving about in these areas and had to endure the unbearable stink discharging from the unmoved trash and choked drains. The citizens exasperated by the situation appealed to the municipal authorities to arrange the removal of waste from their areas and pump out drain water from the roads.

GHOTKI: In Mirpur Mathelo of Ghotki district, municipal employees on Monday took out a protest rally demanding the payment of their overdue salaries. The rally began from Bhitai Chowk and after passing through different roads ended in front of the local press club where participants held a sit-in and raised slogans demanding their salaries.

The leaders at the protest rally said that it had been three months since the municipal employees last received their salaries. They demanded immediate payment of salaries so that they could celebrate Eid along with their families and children. They threatened to hold more protests if their salaries were not released before Eid.