TOBA TEK SINGH-The Municipal Committee employees and pensioners took out a protest rally for the second consecutive day on Tuesday over the nonpayment of salaries and pensions for the last two months.
They marched from Municipal Complex to Shahbaz Chowk and then went to district government complex but the police closed the outer gates due to which they were forced to stay outside in severe heat and could not go to the DC office. Their leaders told reporters that so far during holy month of Ramazan, they were unable to purchase commodities for Sehr and Iftar while Eidul Fitr is also nearing but officials concerned were not giving attention to resolve their issue.
They announced that if their salaries and pensions were not paid to them by Wednesday they will lock the offices of MC and even the staffers and chairmen will not be allowed to enter the offices. They also warned that if the payment of salaries and pensions were further delayed they will close water supply to the city and also stop cleaning the roads and streets as a protest.
MC Chairman Ghulam Nabi said that MC’s assistant director (audit) had been transferred three months back due to which not only salaries bills of the municipal staff were not being prepared but also a number of other financial issues were being faced by his office.
He added that he was repeatedly writing to provincial authorities for the appointment of assistant director(audit) but so far no attention had been given to his requests. He also said an official of district council was given temporary powers who cleared the salaries of last two months but now again the salaries of employees could not be paid to them for the last two months.