HYDERABAD June 28: A large number of residents of Hyderabad (rural) taluka here on Monday staged a rally outside the press club to protest against non-release of share of octroi and zila tax to their union councils by the DCO.

Raising slogans against the DCO, they said they would wait for two days and if the tax share was not released to their UCs till then, they would surround the office of the DCO and block roads in their areas.

Hyderabad (rural) Taluka Nazim Ghulam Ali Gopang, UC nazims Khawand Bux Jahejo, Abdul Karim Talpur, Badar Memon and Syed Ali Mohammad Shah led the protest rally.

Addressing the rally, the nazims said that the issue of the share of octroi and zila tax directly related to people of their UCs because it was their money that had been unnecessarily withheld.

This was in spite of the fact that union councils of other districts of the province and even those of three urban talukas of Hyderabad were getting their share, they said.

The nazims claimed that Rs60 million of the share were lying in a bank account but the same were not being released without any reason and they were being kept on false hopes.

They lamented that the district government was not helping them in the matter although they had raised the issue in the district council time and again. They demanded that funds of the share of octroi and zila tax should be transferred in UC accounts.

The nazims further said that they found it very hard to do routine work of their UCs and added that the government had stopped payment of salaries of sanitary workers in some of the UCs.