Metro Bus Authority employees yet to get August salary

Rawalpindi : Almost two weeks have passed but the staff of Metro Bus Authority (MBA) have not been paid their salaries for the month of August, as a result of which great tension grips among them.

A number of staff members of MBA talking to this correspondent on anonymity condition decried of not receiving August salary while half of the recent month have passed. The non payment of salaries to them has created problems for them as they are failing to meet their financial expenses in their homes.

Besides non payment of salaries on time, the staff alleged of facing other problems as well while working in MBA. First their salaries are meager which have not been increased since the bus services started or joining off their duties in this department. At the time of recruitment in MBA we were told to receive Rs33 thousand . Unfortunately we are being paid only Rs15 thousand as salary. Similarly, the start of bus services, we are working on contract basis. More than four years have elapsed in our recruitment , however, our services have yet not been regularized. Whenever, we approach high ups instead of listening to our grievances and other demands, the officials threaten us to fire from services. This is totally unjust, the employees said.

Even in the previous government we raised demand for raise in our salaries and getting our services regularized but deaf ear was turned every time.

The employees have now demanded off the new government particularly prime minister, Imran Khan and the Punjab Chief Minister to take immediate notice of their problems for taking steps to redress all their grievances particularly raise in their emoluments, regularization of their services without any further delay and provision of other perks given to other employees of the government departments.

In the meantime, scores of employees also alleged that no attention is being paid towards maintenance of metro buses, stations etc. The condition of metro bus stations are deteriorating fast due to non maintenance measures not being taken by the relevant authorities.

The passengers when interviewed also expressed concern over falling condition of buses and stations. They also demanded increase in number of buses as for the last four years or more 67 buses are operating. While during inauguration of bus services, the then chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif had promised to introduce more metro buses up to 100. Due to shortage of buses, great rush of passengers could be seen in long queues in starting points of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Passengers are forced to travel by standing as the number of seats in buses are insufficient to cope all of them. The new government should now focus their attention towards all these issues, they appealed.

On approaching in-charge of MBA, Ms Shumaila did not deny about salary issue. She said that the matter of paying salaries to employees is dealt by the relevant companies hired by the then Punjab government. In all there are 8 companies which are given different tasks while dealing different sections of MBA. The issue of salary payments to employees and workers is dealt by Inbox company, she told. The matter would be taken and discussed with the Inbox company in order to get release of workers’ salaries, she said.

However, Ms. Shumaila had no satisfactory response when asked about failure of the company for maintenance of buses as well as metro stations. Defending her position she said measures are underway to improve the condition of buses and stations as well. To a question she said there is no need to increase the number of buses as in the present number of vehicles we are able to provide better services, she told.