HYDERABAD, Oct 31: The workers of Bawani Sugar Mills, located in Talhar, district Badin, on Thursday staged a protest march against the non-payment of 10-month salary and non-acceptance of other demands.

The sugar mill is situated in Talhar, district Badin.

The protestors, who marched from Haider chowk to Hyderabad press club, said that the workers had not been paid their wages for the past 10 months besides seven bonus, which were overdue and their legal rights.

Calling for payment of dues to the retired and deceased employees, they said that group insurance should be paid without any further delay.

Accusing the mill management of misusing the workers’ provident fund, the workers said that it should be deposited in a bank.

Citing the instructions of the Supreme Court, they said that the management had evaded clear instructions regarding the payment of gratuity.

Stressing on the need to re-open the factory, the workers called for putting an immediate end to the process of sending the employees on forced leave.

The provincial chief of the National Labour Federation, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, on the occasion accused the mill’s managing director of having converted the mill into a forced labour camp.

He criticised what he described as lavish spending by the mill’s managing director on his election campaign while the workers were literally starving.

Other leaders of the workers’ action committee also spoke to the participants of the rally.

Later, the workers observed a token hunger strike outside the local press club to press for the acceptance of their demands.

CLARIFICATION: The director, health services, Sindh, Dr Qadir Bux, in a statement issued here on the other day, denied the reports published in a section of the press that he had blamed officials of the Expanded Programme for Immunization for framing wrong policies due to which polio virus spread in Khairpur district.