CHARSADDA: The employees of tehsil municipal administration (TMA) staged a rally here on Tuesday against non-payment of their salaries.

Led by tehsil chairman Mufti Abdul Rauf Shakir, the protesters took out the procession from TMA office and after passing through various roads reached the office of deputy commissioner where they staged a sit-in.

The protesting employees of TMA announced to stop providing municipality services to people owing to non-payment of their salaries. They were holding placards and chanting slogans in support of their demands.

Addressing the protesters, Mufti Abdul Rauf Shakir, Municipal Workers Union president Marjan Ali and others said that TMA employees had not been paid salaries for the last two months. They said that former workers of TMA of were also deprived of their pensions.

They said that their children were faced with starvation owing of rising price hike and inflation. They said that even shopkeepers had stopped giving them food items as they could not pay them.

Speakers said that they could not deposit school fees of their children owing to non-payment of their salaries. They said that it was becoming difficult for their children to continue education. They said their children would be forced to quit education if their salaries were not paid. They said that TMA did not have funds for fuel of vehicles to run it for cleaning streets. They said that TMA employees and their children were forced to starve while the chief minister himself was staging protest in Islamabad.

Speakers said that provincial government was not interested in solving the problems of employees. They said that the problems of the employees were increasing with each passing day.

They said that provincial government should issue grant to Charsadda TMA as soon as possible so that the employees could get salaries. They said that they would devise a future line of action if salaries to TMA employees were not paid within a week.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2024