DADU: Activists of various political parties and social organisations took out a rally here on Tuesday during a citywide strike against alleged corruption in the works and services department and use of substandard material in the construction of roads in the district.

Speaking to the rally participants outside the local press club, their leaders Moha­m­med Sulaiman, Moham­med Jumman and others claimed that millions of rupees were paid to contractors in advance and the remaining payments were also made without checking the completion or standard of works. They alleged that some corrupt officials within the department were invol­v­ed in the racket.

They appealed to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to conduct a fair inquiry into the road building and other works and fix responsibility to recover misappropriated money.

The protesters marched through various roads raising slogans against corruption and unscrupulous government officials.

Mr Sulaiman told the protesters millions of rupees released for various road building schemes of Dadu, Piarogoth, Sita Road, Khair­pur Nathan Shah, Mehar, Radhan, Khudabad and Johi towns and other parts of the district were misappropriated a result of which condition of roads had never improved.

Mr Juman alleged that officials of the roads department were accepting fake bills of development schemes to get huge amounts of money released without ensuring completion of the works. He said bills were cleared upon receiving bribe.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Peoples Hari Committee of Dadu also held a separate protest march against an executive engineer of the Dadu roads department.

Speaking to the participants, Dhani Bux said contracts of development schemes were being sold to contractors in Phulji Station, Chowdagi, Daro, Dawachh Road, Sohran Kandi and Piarogoth.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2016