LAKKI MARWAT – The strike of Municipal Workers Union has entered third week, due to which the residents are faced with severe problem of poor cleanliness, clogged sewerage lines and shortage of drinking water in the city.
The TMA workers union is on strike since August 13 against obtaining of stay order on the financial affairs of the civic body by Tehsil Municipal Officer Asmatullah Khan. On the pretext of the strike, TMA sweepers and sanitation workers do not perform their assigned duties, thus turning the urban locality into garbage and filth depot. Heaps of garbage and dumps of dirt can be seen scattered everywhere in the city streets and lanes. The stench coming out of garbage dumps is causing nuisance for general public.
The sewerage drains are chocked and overflowing dirty water in the streets breeds bad smell.
The residents of the urban locality are faced with numerous problems due to the poor condition of cleanliness and sanitation.
“The poor cleanliness condition can cause spread of diseases in the urban locality,” a resident feared. He said that heaps of filth would provide favourable conditions to the mushrooming of mosquitoes and increasing of the chances of outbreak of malaria and dengue.
He said that city dwellers had started throwing litter and filth in front of the office of tehsil municipal administration to show their anger and displeasure over the lethargic attitude of official concerned.
Another citizen said that the employees of municipal body were receiving salaries at their homes but they did not come to work because of strike call given by municipal workers union. He said that the residents and business community of the town paid taxes to the civic body to get better service delivery.
“But the entire population of urban area is faced with miserable circumstances for the last two weeks due to deteriorating condition of cleanliness,” he said.
The residents also complained about the scarcity of water in several mohallahs of city. They said that tube wells were out of order or were not being run by staffers concerned.
“The sizzling heat coupled with humidity and shortage of drinking water added to our miseries,” they maintained. The residents demanded of the district administration and higher authorities concerned of provincial government to take notice of situation and order local quarters concerned to ensure cleanliness in the urban locality.