BAHAWALPUR, March 2: Employees of lower grade government departments locked their offices and took out a protest rally to press for the acceptance of their demands here on Wednesday.

Members of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) assembled at the play ground of Government Technical School. They reached there in separate processions. The meeting was addressed by divisional president Fakhur Rehman Azhar, action committee chairman Abbas Abbasi and other office-bearers.

The speakers criticized the government for ignoring their demands, including helmet allowance and raise in salaries. They threatened that the clerks would demonstrate on March 9 if their charter of demands was not accepted.

Later, the protest rally was brought out from the school ground and passed through Farid Gate, the DCO office and the library. The protesters shouted slogans against the government and also blocked traffic for a brief period. Later, they dispersed peacefully.

COMPUTERIZED: Punjab Accountant General Wazir Ahmed Qureshi at a ceremony computerized the network of salaries of government department officials of Lodhran district here on Wednesday.

The Lodhran district has been linked with the district accounts office of Bahawalpur computer system. The Punjab AG said that measures were being taken to ensure transparency in the accounts and budgets of the government departments.

He said special arrangements had been made for maintaining the accounts of salaries of 850,000 employees and 350,000 pensioners in the Punjab government. Efforts, he said, were also being made to simplify the account system in government offices. He said that steps had also been made to detect the payment of bogus and fake bills in the government treasury.

The ceremony was also addressed by CDA chief Maj-Gen Abdul Razzaq (retired) and the accounts officer. With the linking of Lodhran district with Bahawalpur's computerization section, the salaries of another 10,000 government employees in Bahawalpur district were also computerized on Wednesday.

PLANTATION: DCO Imran Ahmed inaugurated a tree plantation campaign by planting ashok sapling on his office premises. Forest department officials informed that a total 300,000 plants would be planted in the Bahawalpur district during the drive.

HELMET: The traffic police continued crackdown on motorcyclists violating the government directive to wear helmets and recovered around Rs67,000 from 487 violators on Wednesday.