ISLAMABAD: Sanitation workers associated with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Wednesday protested over delay in distribution of Christmas allowance.

The workers staged a demonstration in the parking lot of the CDA headquarters.

Director Sanitation Sardar Khan Zimri told Dawn that the civic agency had no direct role in releasing the allowance as the workers had been hired by a private contractor.

He said CDA’s regular employees had already been paid the allowance in advance, alleging that the contractor was supposed to pay the allowance on Wednesday, but the workers did not wait and started protesting. However, Mr Zimri, claimed that the CDA intervened and majority of the workers were paid by the contractor while the remaining would receive the allowance on Thursday. According to CDA rules, the civic body’s sanitation workers as well as those hired by a contractor are supposed to get Rs5,000 as Christmas allowance.

The CDA ensures cleanliness of the city through its own employees and contractors. The contractor manages sectors G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9, G-10, G-11, I-8, I-10 and the highway while the other parts of the city are handled by the civic authority’s employees.

Earlier, the Sanitation Directorate was part of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad but it was put under the administrative control of the CDA a couple of months ago.

In August, the MCI awarded a contract against a whopping Rs650 million per annum to a contractor, who is supposed to hire 1,290 workers to maintain cleanliness of the city. Some officials said there was a need to probe as to why the civic bodies opted to outsource cleanliness arrangements instead of making direct hiring.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2020