QUETTA, June 13: The Pakistan Wapda Hydroelectric Central Labour Union on Sunday criticized the federal budget for 2004-05 and said it had been prepared to safeguard the interest of the privileged class , ignoring the downtrodden.

A statement issued by the union's Balochistan chapter said there was no social safety scheme in the budget for the working class, particularly the peasants, coal mine labourers, daily wage workers and the jobless youth.

About the increase in salaries of government employees it said those in grade-1 would get a raise of Rs280 to Rs560 while the grade-22 officers would get 2,616 to Rs5,241 more, which was discriminatory.

It demanded that the government should enhance the salaries by Rs3,000 irrespective of grade so that the low-paid staff could benefit from the budget. It said Rs700 billion had been allocated for non-development expenditure and only Rs202 billion would be spent on development activities.

It stated that the rulers had failed to introduce special relief or social schemes for the deprived people who were committing suicide due to poverty. It said about 3,000 people were taking their own lives annually according to an estimate.

Referring to growing inflation, price hike and unemployment, it said the government before passing the budget must review the problems confronted by the common man.