SIALKOT, Sept 11: The inherent problem of seepage in the recently raised Allama Iqbal Labour Colony having 500 residential units has still not been resolved even after seven months of its construction.

Established along the main Sialkot-Pasrur Road, the colony was the idea of the Punjab Labour department.

Industrial workers, labourers and their dependents residing in these flats, in a constant state of agony, are now facing more difficulties. But the department concerned has still not taken any practical step to rectify the situation.

Giving vent to their disquiet, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president, Dr Nouman Idrees Butt and senior vice-president Faisal Mehmood Khan said that the faulty construction had brought about the seepage.

In the absence of any streetlight, they said the labour colony plunged into darkness soon after the nightfall.

The Labour department, they said, had already called back security guards deputed at the colony, leaving the dwellers insecure. The colony had already a very short boundary wall around it, inviting unconcerned persons to cross it over at their will.

The dispensary and the utility store, strongly promised by the labour department, had still no sign of their existence, they said.

Inhabitants also made a complaint of improper sanitation and cleanliness system as heaps of garbage of all kind could be seen everywhere. Even the basic facilities promised to residents had not been fulfilled.

President Pervez Musharraf had laid the foundation stone of the labour colony during his visit to Sialkot on Sept 30, 2000. While Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had distributed keys among owners of flats during a special ceremony held here on April 1, 2005.

District Nazim Muhammad Akmal Cheema said that he had brought the situation into the notice of the Punjab government for the resolution of dwellers’ problems.