KARACHI, Aug 23: All sorts of cleaning and sweeping works have come to a standstill in Lyari Town following the strike called by its health workers to protest against the non-payment of their nine months’ overtime bills.

The town administration’s health workers, numbering around 900, have been protesting against the non-payment of overtime and delayed disbursement of salaries.

With the stoppage of sweeping and cleaning works, heaps of garbage have accumulated on main thoroughfares and streets of Lyari, creating insanitary and stinking environment in the thickly populated town.

According to Lyari Town Naib Nazim, Malik Muhammad Khan Awan, the major cause of resentment among the health workers is non- payment of their overtime, which the town administration has not been able to pay them for the last nine months owing to paucity of funds.

He said that the town administration was facing serious financial crisis due to non-payment of its share from the city government. He said that the town administration was not only facing difficulties in disbursing salaries to its employees on time, but was also unable to pay the overtime to its health workers.

Mr Khan said that on one side the health workers’ strike had entered the second day on Saturday while on the other side 14 garbage collecting vans were out of order. The vans, he added, could not be repaired for want of funds.

Expressing his concern over the deteriorating sanitary condition in Lyari, Mr Khan demanded of the City Nazim to immediately make arrangements for paying outstanding dues to the town administration so that they could succeed in bringing an end to the health workers’ strike with payment of their overtime bills.

He said that the contractors were also not prepared to undertake development works of the town owing to the non-payment of their bills.

Later, a delegation of the United Workers Union, led by its vice-president, Mohammad Raees, called on the Town Naib Nazim. They apprised him of the resentment being prevailed among the health workers owing to the unpaid bills.

The Naib Nazim assured the delegation that the town administration was making all out efforts to get the town’s share from the city government for the payment of health workers’ overtime bills as well as for undertaking upliftment plans.