HYDERABAD, Sept 22: Activists of HDA Mehran Workers’ Union staged a demonstration outside the press club on Monday in protest against non-payment of three months salary to Hyderabad Development Authority employees.
The union leaders said that workers would continue protest till they received salary and warned if their salary for the months of July, August and September was not paid immediately, they could go on an indefinite strike.
They said that the HDA had paid salary to only a few hundred employees out of 2,000 for the month of July and added that the authority was trying to hoodwink the government.
HDA Director-General Javed Junejo claimed in a faxed statement that all the employees of the authority’s Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) had been paid salary for July.
He pointed out that Wasa was not receiving any subsidy from the Sindh government and had to meet its expenses from its own resources. Due to prolonged loadshedding over past many months the agency had to keep water supply and sewerage system going through generators, he said.
It was the major reason behind the agency’s inability to pay two months salary to its employees, he said and added that the Sindh government had been requested to provide subsidy to Wasa to help it meet expenses.
He appealed to consumers to clear dues immediately to enable Wasa to pay salary to employees.
EXTORTION: The Sindh People’s Students Federation said on Monday that some vested interests were defaming the student wing of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party by extorting money from functionaries of government organisations.
Speaking at a news conference at the press club, SPSF general secretary Dr Fayaz Ahmed Rajpar and president of its Hyderabad chapter Nazeer Ahmed Siyal said that some vested interests and undesirable elements were using Benazir Bhutto’s and SPSF’s name in Hyderabad and the entire province to extort money by blackmailing government and private sector organisations.
They said that such blackmailers and extortionists had nothing to do with the PPP or SPSF. Amir Pathan and Abbas Loond had no link with SPSF and they were not the members of the party, they said.
They appealed to people and government and private sector organisations to immediately inform the SPSF leadership on 0333-2635774, 0300-3067023, 0301-3571617 or 0300-3025550 to help get the extortionists arrested.
They said that they condemned such people and appealed to general public to be aware of such elements, he said.
Tax counter: An income tax counter had been established at the secretariat of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry to receive income tax returns from taxpayers, said officials of the chamber and the Regional Taxation Office on Monday.
They said the FBR had extended the facility to facilitate taxpayers.
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