OKARA: More than 70 employees of market committees (MCs) of Depalpur, Hujra Shah Muqeem, Haveli Lakha and Basirpur have been deprived of their salaries for the last eight months.

Only Renala Khurd Market Committee has released salaries of the staff after their persistence protest.

Sources told Dawn the MCs had been suffering from economic problems when departments increased the MC fee from Re1 to Rs2 per quintal (100 kilo) on weight in grain markets. Grain market commission agents and arthis rejected the decision and stopped paying the fee.

Sources said the fee was the main sources of municipalities income.

Okara Anjuman Arthian President Chaudhry Habibul Haq told Dawn the MCs were not performing their duties, such as routine repairmen and maintenance of platform, security, sprinkling of water on pavements and measures for the welfare of growers.

Mr Haq said the allotment of platforms to 263 commission agents in the under-developed Ghallah Mandi on Okara-Depalpur Road had been done in a hurry as the market had a plethora of problems.

He said they were suffering heavy losses because of the lack of boundary wall and no brick-lining of platforms. Because of such problems, he said, their body had decided not to pay the MC market fee.

The stoppage of payment fee has resulted in economic crisis for MCs, and the ultimate sufferers are the staffers.

CASE: The Saddar police registered a case against two farmers for stealing canal water in village 28/2L at minor 2L in the area of beat no 57/58L minor.

According to the first information report, Renala Khurd Sub-Division Officer Faheem Farid with the canal field staff spotted the canal water theft near 2L minor of 28 2L late on Tuesday. The staff held Muhammad Mahboob while his accomplice Nadeem escaped the scene.

They were stealing water with tractor-run pumps from the minor.

BODIES: Rescue 1122 divers with Saddar police officials pulled two bodies after 60 hours from the Lower Bari Doaab Canal (LBDC) on Wednesday.

Some three days back, police and Rescue 1122 personnel were alerted about the drowning of a man and a woman, both travelling on a motorcycle in the LBDC near Zaman Park. A rescue operation was launched. According to police sources, the bodies had been recovered on Wednesday.

Police have yet to ascertain the identity of the bodies.

INJURED: Five labourers were pulled from the debris of the building of the local cadet college on Wednesday and shifted to the Okara District Headquarters Hospital.

Construction work was under way on the cadet college building on Okara-Faisalabad Road when the roof of a room collapsed and five labourers were trapped under the debris. Rescue 1122 pulled out and shifted them to the hospital. Of them, four stable and one was in critical condition.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2017