Municipal Corporation employees, pensioners to lock down city on March 1

District government fails to release their salaries, pensions, as Punjab govt fails to issue notification of mayor system or deputy commissioner

Rawalpindi

Thousands of employees and pensioners of Municipal Corporation have decided to lock down Rawalpindi on Thursday (March 2) if city district government fails to release salaries and pensions till March 1, 2017.

The government employees and pensioners are facing difficulties due to absence of lack of a system here in Rawalpindi. Punjab government has so far neither issued notification of mayor system nor deputy commissioner system for two months and all bills, salaries and pensions are pending between mayor system and deputy commissioner system in this regard.

Municipal Workers League (MWL) City District Government Chairman Changez Bhatti, President Haji Muhammad Farooq, Senior Vice-President Malik Muhammad Shafiq and General Secretary Younas Ghori told 'The News' that they will stop working from March 2 and close down all roads of Rawalpindi if city district government does not release their salaries and pensions till March 1. For two months, we are in uncertain situation because there is no authority to release salaries and pensions, they denounced.

Pensioners are leading a hard life, as government has not paid pensions and salaries in time. They decided that the sanitation workers will never lift garbage and other waste material from city on Thursday. The concerned authority had released salaries for the month of February on February 21 rather February 1, 2017.

The representatives said that they will start their rally from all areas particularly from main Kutcherry Chowk, Liaquat Bagh and from Rawalpindi Press Club. “If police will try tried to stop us we will never spare them because we would block city areas along with our families,” they warned.

They said that they had met District Coordination Officer (DCO), Rawalpindi many times to resolve this issue but in vain. So we have decided to come on roads, they said.

It is worth mentioning here that a month back a large number of pensioners from the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and the District Council were on hunger strike against non-payment of pensions for nine months. Protesters, including women, had set up a camp near Liaquat Bagh on Murree Road.

The reliable sources said that all local government departments included Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), Punjab Horticultural Authority (PHA), Town Municipal Administration (TMA), Rawal Town and Potohar Town, Education Department, Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC) etc are facing financial problems due to absence of proper system. All bills are pending as nobody is ready to release payment.