ISLAMABAD: Ahead of Christmas, hundreds of sanitation workers of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) took to the streets on Wednesday against the non-payment of their salaries.

Sanitation workers who have been facing a salary issue for the past year, on Wednesday staged a protest on Kashmir Highway against Capital Development Authority (CDA) for not releasing their salaries for the month of November.

Protesters also raised slogans against CDA.

However, CDA’s spokesperson Syed Safdar Ali said that MCI had Rs2 billion in its account and it is their responsibility to pay salaries to sanitation workers.

Before the formation of MCI, sanitation directorate was a part of the CDA. However, later on it was devolved to the MCI, which claims it does not have sufficient funds.

MCI officials said that since MCI’s rules are not finalised which is why it could not spend the funds it collected in term of various municipal fees.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2019