HYDERABAD, July 13: The taluka councils of the City, Latifabad and Qasimabad have failed to pay Rs2 million pensions to 1,650 retired employees / widows and Rs45.5 million commutation and gratuity to 268 employees for the last three months , it is learnt through impeccable sources.

The employees earlier worked for the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and and were paid salaries and dues by it. After the introduction of the district government system, the city was divided into three talukas and the City taluka was assigned the job of collecting the amount from the two other talukas and pay them to the employees.

The City taluka had not been able to clear the dues as both the Qasimabad and Latifabad talukas had failed to make any contribution, sources said. The nazim of City taluka, Haji Moinuddin Shaikh, complained to the district public complaint cell on June 30, saying that despite instructions from the DCO, the taluka municipal officers of Latifabad and Qasimabad had not remitted the pension contribution to the City municipal administration.

He said that due to inordinate delay, monthly pension to 1,650 retired employees / widows could not have been paid for the months of April, May and June. He added that it had created unrest among the retired employees and widows, which could lead to lodging of protest by them.

In this regard, a meeting was held on June 11, which was presided over by the district Nazim and attended by the nazims of the three talukas and the DCO. In the meeting, the TMOs of Qasimabad and Latifabad were directed to remit the pension contribution.

Sources said that the City taluka nazim had proposed to the secretary of the local government department that due to the non-cooperation of the taluka nazims of Qasimabad and Latifabad, the monthly pensions be deducted from the share of octroi duty and zila tax of three talukas and deposited in the pension account of the Hyderabad municipal administration so that the retired employees / widows could regularly get their pensions.

The secretary has also been requested to enhance pension contribution rates from 15 per cent to 30 percent as is the practice in vogue in other departments of the Sindh government.

The City nazim has made it clear to the secretary that the situation is fast getting out of control and the retired employees may take to streets. Sources said that almost daily, hundreds of retired employees throng the office of the City municipal administration to get their pensions but return disappointed.

The president of the retired employees association, Sagheer Rajput, said that the poor retired employees were getting restive as they had not received their pension / gratuity commutation, which was their only source of livelihood.

MUET: The authorities of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology have announced that written test for the posts of assistant registrar, lecturers, laboratory assistants, workshop superintendent and internal check officer will be held on July 19 at M.D. Dawood Hall, MUET, Jamshoro, at 10am.