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HYDERABAD, June 3: Certain employees of Irrigation Department, Kotri Barrage, have threatened to jam the irrigation system unless the non-technical secretary irrigation, Sindh, was transferred and the decision to shift the department’s offices from Hyderabad to other places was revoked.
The grade-1 to 16 employees hurled their ultimatum at a protest demonstration held outside the press club here on Monday. The rally was organized by All Pakistan Clerks Association, Hyderabad.
Earlier, the protesters brought out a procession from Kotri Barrage office and after marching through the main roads, they staged a sit-in outside the district assembly office.
Addressing the rally, the Naib Nazim of the district, Nawab Rashid Ali Khan, offered full support of the district government to the employees.
He told the protesters that a representative delegation of the district government would be meeting with the concerned officials to solve the workers’ problems.
At the rally outside the press club, Mohammed Anwar Khan, Mohammed Shahid Sammo, Mohammed Ashraf Khan Bozai and Noor Mohammed Shaikh said that the irrigation offices had been set up in Hyderabad in 1942. The provincial secretary irrigation, Mir Mohammed Parhiar, who was an officer of the district management group and ‘knew nothing about irrigation’ had ordered the shifting of offices to Badin, Thatta and other places, they said.
The speakers warned that if the orders were implemented, more than 2,000 employees would be displaced and their allowances/salaries would be reduced by more than Rs500 per month.
WORKERS PLEDGE: The Secretary General of Pakistan Wapda Hydro-Electric Central Labour Union, Khursheed Ahmed, has said that the Wapda employees were ready to fight side-by-side with the valiant armed forces against any enemy and they will spare no sacrifices in the defence of the motherland.
He was addressing a workers’ meeting held at the Wapda Labour Hall here on Saturday.
A large number of workers from Jamshoro, Lakhra and Kotri power houses and other Wapda wings attended the meeting.
The labour leader thanked the Authority for granting Rs250 as “performance allowance” to the workers and said that the 54 sacked employees of Lakhra Power House would be re-appointed on contract basis by the Hesco.
The Zila Nazim of Hyderabad, Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman, who was specially invited, said that he will spare no efforts for the reinstatement of the dismissed employees. The district government, he added, was trying to resolve the problems faced by labourers.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Latif Nizamani, president of the union, appealed to the government to make all out efforts for the recovery of Asghar, a foreman kidnapped from Thul Grid Station.
Mohammed Iqbal Kaim Khani, Malik Sultan and the Nazim of Latifabad taluka, Abdul Jabbar, also addressed the rally.
