HYDERABAD: Intensif­y­­ing their protest against non-payment of salaries, dues and pensions, Hyder­abad Development Authori­ty’s (HDA) workers and ret­ir­ed employees shut down sewerage pumping stations at 8am on Tuesday, causing sewage to flood different parts of the city.

Led by HDA employees’ union (CBA), protesting workers have already been shutting down water supply installations for many hours daily since Feb 7, which has caused a shortage of water across the city. After the provincial government and HDA authorities did not respond positively to a set of demands put forward by the CBA and also to its ultimatum regarding disruption of sewerage system, the workers started keeping both water supply and sewerage systems closed from 8am to 2pm on Tuesday.

The CBA said agitating workers kept five main sewage disposal stations closed for six hours and would do the same daily until its demands were met.

Speaking to the media at the Tulsidas pumping station, CBA general secretary Abdul Qayyum Bhatti said the CBA did not want to agonise citizens but the ‘stubborn’ attitude of the Sindh government, district administration and HDA towards poor and needy workers had forced it to take the painful decision.

“They [workers] had not been getting their salaries and dues for many months while retired employees were not being paid their pension for long,” he said, and asked that how could hundreds of affected workers and their families make both ends meet.

The CBA’s demands included disbursement of four months’ salaries to 850 regular Wasa employees, pension to 560 retired employees, six months’ salaries to 1,300 contractual and work-charge workers and provident fund, gratuity, etc, besides implementation of other rules and regulations and reinstatement of laid-off workers.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017