Dir village council secretaries demand salaries

TIMERGARA: The newly-appointed village council secretaries in Lower Dir district on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration against non-payment of their salaries for the last one year.

Chanting slogans against provincial government and the district administration for adopting delaying tactics in releasing their salaries, the protesters gathered outside the Timergara Press Club. Later, they staged a sit-in just outside the office of the deputy commissioner in Balambat and blocked the road for a while.

Addressing on the occasion, Wasim Sajjad, Hamidullah and Attaur Rahman said they were appointed in February this year but their salaries were yet to be released.Though the provincial government was making tall claims of devolving powers to the gross-roots level, it could not release the salaries of newly appointed village council secretaries despite passage of 10 months, they said.

They added that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak himself had announced up-grading old union council secretaries during a convention of LG representatives in Peshawar.“But the CM is yet to honour his words despite a lapse of more than nine months,” he added.

The protesters dispersed peacefully after Assistant Director (AD) Local Government and Rural Development Department (LG&RDD) Lower Dir Ziaul Haq and district naib nazim Abdur Rashid Khan held negotiations with them.