LARKANA, July 28: The sanitary staff of the Ratodero Taluka municipal administration have not been paid salaries for two months whereas the retired workers are waiting for gratuity and pension payments.

On being contacted, an officer of the Ratodero Taluka Council said on Tuesday that the sanctioned strength of the sanitary workers was 103 but the council received salaries of 67 workers from the Sindh government hence 36 posts are lying vacant.

The amount of monthly salary of the sanitary workers stood at Rs525,000, he said and added that they did not receive whole amount but instalments of it which resulted into piling up of arrears.

He said that so far the taluka council had not received the current month's salaries. For the last eight months, he said, the retired employees of his council had not been paid pension dues and the amount ranged between Rs400,000 to 500,000. The Sindh local government department had been requested for early release of the pension amount, he added.

District Nazim Khursheed Ahmed Junejo said that the district government had recently given Rs3.6 million to the Ratodero taluka council to help it overcome the financial crisis. However, the council official denied having received the amount.

Mr Junejo said that receipt of small amount from the Sindh government complicated the situation, and suggested adoption of a systematic way to permanently overcome the problem.

ZARDARI: Asif Zardari has turned down many offers of deal and stood unshaken in turbulent times. This was said by the speakers at 50th birthday celebration of Mr Zardari here on Monday. The Asif Zardari Rehaee Committee arranged the function in which a 50-pound cake was cut to mark the day.