HARIPUR: Financial crisis has once again hit the Haripur tehsil municipal administration, forcing the workers to stage a protest to demand payment of their withheld salary here on Monday.

“Haripur TMA also owes over Rs40 million dues to Peshawar Electric Supply Company, which may disconnect power supply to its tube wells and streetlights,” official sources said.

The protesting workers said the municipal body had been in financial mess for the last few years as the provincial government chose to address the issue on an ad hoc basis rather than finding a permanent solution. “It’s now a routine that after every six months workers’ salary gets delayed beyond two months,” said a protesting daily wager. He added this time around too they had not been paid for the last two months.

He said the majority of workers were either daily wagers or contractual, who had to run their kitchens with the salary, but the delayed payments had exposed them to financial crisis.

Accuse govt of bringing once wealthiest civic body to bankruptcy

Another worker criticised the provincial government for what he said bringing the once wealthiest TMA of the province to bankruptcy. He said Haripur had the right to receive its due share from the head of net hydel profit against the sacrifices the people rendered for the construction of Tarbela Dam. “The way the TMA is being dealt with is proof of discriminatory attitude towards the people of the district.”

Official sources said TMA had 700 plus regular and daily wage workers and their monthly salary amounted to Rs25 million. They said TMA’s own sources included rents, licence fee, transport terminals, livestock market and others, which were not sufficient to meet the monthly expenses of the overly staffed municipal body.

They said the abolishment of two per cent mutation fee on transfer of land in TMA Khalabat, which also fell in the financial ambit of Haripur municipal body, under-recovery of water charges and low rates of water were a few contributing factors to the worsening financial condition of the body.

The tehsil municipal officer, and tehsil chairman Samiullah Khan were not available for comments. However, an official source confirmed that the workers could not be disbursed with salary for the last two months.

He, however, said the matter had been taken up with provincial minister for local bodies Arshad Ayub Khan, who happened to be one of three elected MPAs from Haripur. He said the minister had earlier helped the TMA several times and would again hopefully play his decisive role in steering the civic body out of the financial crisis.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2024