HYDERABAD, May 19: Leaders of four worker unions of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) have urged the government to give Rs360 million subsidy to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

They urged the government departments to clear Wasa dues so that the agency could pay dues to its deceased and retired employees.

Addressing a news conference jointly at the press club here on Saturday, leaders of HDA Employees Union, HDA Mehran Workers Union, United Workers Front and HDA Welfare Association Bahram Chang, Insaf Lashari, Mohammad Umer and Khalid Noor said the problems of Wasa workers had remained unattended for a long time.

The unions have formed a joint action committee to fight for their rights from a single platform.

Undue delay in payment of salary had become a routine in the HDA and Wasa but neither HDA management nor government was paying any heed to the problem, they said.

They said that the employees were not getting salary for the past five months. Their demands included payment of dues to retired and deceased employees, provision of regular jobs to the sons of retired and deceased employees and regularisation of daily-wage and contract employees, they said.

They said that only Hyderabad Site owed Rs180 million to HDA and Sindh government departments Rs913.1 million for the period ending Nov 31, 2011.

Besides, they said, the Sindh Building Control Authority had not been paying Rs10 million under betterment charges to Wasa since it had been formed. The labour leaders said the government should ensure its departments cleared Wasa dues and it should include these payments in its revised budget for 2011-12 and the budget for 2012-13.

They said the reason for Wasa’s financial woes was that it earned less and spent more. Its bill for employees’ salaries came to Rs35 million while its receivable payments were not more than Rs20 million, they said.

The salary, they said, would be raised by 25 per cent in the upcoming budget. Therefore, the government should pay Rs360 million subsidy to Wasa like other sanitation agencies to help meet its expenses.

They said the joint action committee formed by the four unions had launched a struggle in this regard. If the government did not resolve their problems, employees would observe a tool-down strike which would disrupt water supply and sewerage system, they warned.

PROTEST: Sanitary workers of the HDA took out a procession from Hyder Chowk to the press club on Saturday. They warned if they were not paid salary by May 28 they would observe strike and continue it till the acceptance of their demands.

The protesters’ leaders Munawar Sardar and Javed Roshan said the sanitary workers were not receiving salary for the past five months.

Various posts were vacant in the authority but their children were not being given jobs, they said.

They said that educated workers were not being promoted to the posts of clerks and drivers. Their cadres were not being changed like other employees, they said.