KARACHI, Oct 4: Piles of garbage can be seen in most of the Towns in former districts West and South as thousands of sanitary workers and drivers have been on strike against non-payment of dues for the last nine days.

The sanitary workers, drivers and machine operators in Keamari, Baldia, Saddar, Orangi, Lyari, Jamshed, Site and Gadap Towns have been on strike since Sept 26 against non-payment of overtime and other allowances for nearly one year.

Many areas in Jamshed Town, including Mehmoodabad and Azam Basti, various parts of Orangi and Keamari Towns and nearly all of Saddar and Lyari Towns, present an stinking atmosphere.

Besides, the unique status of Lyari and Saddar Towns is that their day-time population is quite high as a large number of offices and workshops are situated there, which contribute to the daily garbage generation of the area and the Towns have the maximum number of sanitary workers.

Nazim Saddar Town Farooq Fariya said though sanitation is the Town’s subject but they were totally dependent on the city government for all finances. There are about 1,700 sanitary workers in the Town whose total backlog amount has risen to about Rs9 million. Similarly, there are some 1,400 sanitary workers in Lyari Town, in addition to drivers and other staff.

According to sources, the total amount payable to these sanitary workers is about Rs70 million, besides, the workers have been demanding that the existing allowance should be raised and revised.

According to Town Municipal Officer, New Karachi, Farrukh Habib, one of the major reasons for the ongoing strike was the presence of a large number of sanitary workers. He said his Town had only 400 sanitary workers as opposed to its requirement of one thousand.

Similarly, Naib Nazim, Gulberg Town, Usman Beg, said the Town had been gradually reducing the pending amount even from its resources during the transaction period.

Regarding current strike by sanitary workers, Usman Beg said that sanitary workers observed strike over the Rimpa Plaza incident, but the Town administration negotiated with other unions and persuaded them not to join the strike.

No meeting has been held during the last nine days of the strike either between the union and Towns or with the city government to resolve the issue.

Since the keys of all workshops and vehicles are with drivers and other staff who are on strike, the Towns cannot clear the garbage using privately-hired work force. However, sources said that a high-level meeting was expected with EDO (finance) on Saturday.—PPI