HARIPUR, Feb 28: The management of the Telephone and Telegraph Colony Board here on Wednesday terminated the services of 454 employees of different categories, including women, and closed all the units being run by it.
The employees, including women, took out a protest rally and blocked the Khanpur Road for about four and a half hours, causing traffic chaos.
The colony board, which was established in 1957, rendered civic services to the residents of the T&T Colony and non-resident employees till the last week of December.
Being constituent members of the board, the Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP), the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) and the Telecommunication Staff College (TSC) had been running this board since its inception.
The TIP, being the biggest component of the board, had a contribution of 68 per cent while two other units were paying 32 per cent of its expenses in total. Under the control of the Board, there were three educational institutions, a hospital and estate office which had been providing civic services to the residents of T&T Colony for the last four decades. However, according to a letter dated February 26, 2007 (vide No CN/EO/T-Ser/07) addressed to the district nazim, Haripur, the chairman, Colony Board, Javed Safdar Khan, informed the district government that owing to financial constraints of the TIP a meeting was convened on December 7, 2006 wherein the component units of the Colony Board decided in principle to dissolve the board and terminate the services of all its employees with immediate effect.
The letter states: “So consequently upon dissolution of the Colony Board and pursuant to a decision taken in the meeting of the constituent members on February 19, 2007 the services of all employees of the Colony Board have become redundant and the same has been decided to be terminated with effect from February 28, 2007.”
The chairman also sought the help of the district government in maintaining law and order and ensuring protection of TIP’s assets.
Following the decision the management locked the hospital, all the three schools and estate office for an indefinite period sending a wave of unrest among the employees.
The Colony Board has 185 permanent, 179 contractual, 60 daily wagers and 30 fixed-pay employees each of whose tenure and scales of services varied accordingly.
Among the sacked workers, about 150 were women teachers and female hospital staff who along with their male colleagues took to the streets as a protest against their termination.