Town-IV employees threaten protest for acceptance of demands

PESHAWAR: The employees of Town-IV have warned of launching a protest campaign if the elected representatives did not withdraw their demand of utilising the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) funds meant for salaries of the employees.

The United Municipal Workers Union at a meeting at the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) office on Tuesday set a seven-day deadline for resolving the issue.

Malik Naveed Awan, chairman of the union, chaired the meeting that was attended by workers representatives of all towns and Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP).

The meeting decided to hold a protest camp outside the TMA office for three days after the expiry of the deadline.

“The city district government, towns and WSSP workers would go on an indefinite strike if the issue remained unresolved after the protest camp,” the meeting decided.

The workers union accused the elected representatives of Town-IV of demanding the release of the savings of the two quarters of 2018-19 for their development schemes in their respective constituencies.

The meeting was briefed that Town-IV had received two installments during 2018-19. The town has saving of Rs15 million in the first instalment of Rs41.9 million and it saved Rs16 million in the second instalment of Rs42 million.

However, the Rs31 million that has wrongly been declared as saving is the amount that would be used to pay salaries and pensions to the workers, the meeting was informed.

If this amount was released to councillors for their schemes the workers would not get salaries for the next three months that included Ramazan, the participants were informed. It was claimed that pension contribution amounting to Rs8 million had not been sent to the pension account for the last five months.

The meeting was told that the PFC funds were allocated for development schemes after the deduction of salaries and other non-development expenditures, including utilities.

The meeting claimed that Town-IV was facing difficulties in revenue generation due to its rural composition and it was dependent on PFC funds for salaries and other needs.

“The provincial government cannot provide grants in June and July due to its preparation for the budget,” Malik Naveed told the meeting.

He said that councillors had complete their development schemes but wanted to utilize more funds as the local government tenure nears completion. He alleged that councillors were involved in a conspiracy against the Tehsil Municipal Officer and other officials for their refusal let them use the workers’ salaries for their schemes.

Malik Naveed Awan said that councillors had admitted in their council meeting on February 8 that they had utilized their funds and had completed their schemes. He asked the councillor to resolve the issue amicably and avoid confrontation, saying that confrontation was not in their favour.

“We have proofs of their wrongdoings. We know everything about their corruption and would send the proofs to the National Accountability Bureau if the councillors continued demand for using workers’ salaries for their schemes,” he warned.

Malik Naveed Awan said workers could announce complete shut down if the TMO and other officials who are resisting the unlawful demands were transferred.