Baqar tells Hyderabad DC to get illegally occupied labour flats vacated

Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has directed the district administration of Hyderabad to get vacated illegal occupation of the flats constructed for labourers and ordered repairs and renovation of labour flats in Gulshan-e-Maymar.

He issued these directives while presiding over a meeting of the provincial labour department on Friday. The meeting was attended by Caretaker Law Minister Omar Soomro, advocate General Hassan Akbar, Principal Secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh, advocate Shabir Shah, Secretary Labour Laeeq Ahmed and other officers.

Baqar was told that the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) was responsible for the construction of flats and houses, provision of free quality education to workers’ children, provision of financial aid for purchasing uniforms, shoes, books and bags, scholarships for the children of labourers, grants-in-aid for the marriage of workers’ daughters, and financial aid to legal heirs of the

deceased workers.

The meeting was told that from 2018 to 2023 an amount of Rs1,333.130 million had been disbursed as grant-in-aid for the marriage of labourers’ daughters, Rs244.456 million in scholarships to 3,175 students, and Rs2,160.625 death grants in 4,360 cases of deceased labourers.

To a question, the CM was told that the WWB had built 11,565 flats, 6,257 houses, 5,443 plots, and 23 schools and colleges. Baqar was told that the 128 flats were under illegal occupation in the Hyderabad Labour Colony. At this, he directed the deputy commissioner to get vacated the flats and hand them over to the labour department so that they could be allotted to registered workers.

It was pointed out that some of the flats retaken from illegal occupants in Gulshan-e-Maymar needed repair and renovation.

The CM directed Law Minister Omar Soomro to visit the flats with the labour secretary. He also told the labour department to repair them at the earliest for their allotment to labourers.