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TOBA TEK SINGH, Oct 27: A large number of citizens, traders and activists of political and religious parties staged a rally and blocked traffic to protest the prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding here on Monday.
The protesters marched through different roads and bazaars and also staged a sit-in for about two hours at Sadar Bazaar intersection.
Addressing on the occasion, Jamaat-i-Islami district amir Dr Maqbool Ahmad, PML-N’s city president Malik Shaukat Ali, PML (functional) district president Pirzada Mansoor Javed, Tanzeem Ahle Sunnah chief Maulana Muneem Siddiqui, Maulana Hameeduddin Rizvi and Anjuman Rehri Chabri Faroshan president Shaukat Chohan condemned the government for its failure to control the power shortage crisis.
The protesters later dispersed peacefully.
PROCESSION: Scores of brick kiln workers brought out a protest procession against kiln owners for refusing to pay wages according to the rates fixed by the government.
Workers of the kilns of Philour, Rajana and Nagra areas reached here on tractor-trolleys and marched through different roads. They also staged a sit-in outside the DCO office.
A delegation, led by workers union president Khalid Maqbool Gujjar, met DCO Chaudhry Ashraf and informed him that the government had fixed their wages at Rs480 per 1,000 bricks, but kiln owners were not ready to pay them more than Rs280.
They urged the DCO to direct the labour department to get implemented the new rates and take action against the kiln owners in case of defiance.
The DCO assured them that he would ask the district officer (labour) to arrange a meeting between kiln owners and workers to resolve the issue.
HELD: An Anti-Corruption Establishment team, led by magistrate Gulzar Ansari and ACE circle inspector Qazi Basit Ali, raided the office of district officer (revenue) and caught red-handed a junior clerk while taking bribe from a farmer on Monday.
Hayat Shah of Chak 761-GB had informed the ACE that clerk Maqbool was demanding Rs8,000 from him for the allotment of farmland. The accused was sent to jail.
