LWMC management locks horns with DC

LAHORE: A tussle has started between the district administration and the management of the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC).

A press release issued by LWMC Tuesday claimed that due to ruthless behaviour of Assistant Commissioner Raiwind, the LWMC sanitary workers threatened to observe strike.

“Assistant Commissioner Raiwind involved in using foul language for LWMC workers and officers followed by taking pictures of solid waste before official timings of the field staff. The situation worsened when the negative report was shared with top officials regarding LWMC performance in Raiwind,” it stated. The release added that on this development, the LWMC unions decided to observe strike until the matter was resolved amicably.

According to the spokesperson, LWMC was only issuing salaries to those who were present in the field and no salary had ever been issued over absenteeism. He stated that LWMC taking the matter seriously deducted nearly Rs16 million in this regard. The LWMC is the only well-established department in the country which is lifting more than 90 percent of the solid waste from the city effectively. Meanwhile, in response to LWMC’s accusations about use of foul language by AC Raiwind, the district administration stated that AC Raiwind visited the area at around 6am and found that the LWMC officials were absent from their duties. He called the Zonal Officer (ZO) Ali Raza who told the AC that he was on leave. AC Raiwind asked him to share his leave application on which he said it was with the Manager Operations Faisal. The district government officials said that AC Raiwind called Manager Operations and asked him to share leave application of ZO Ali Raza on which Manager Operations said he didn’t have leave application. Later, ZO Ali Raza reached Chuhng Bazaar at 6.30am. PRO to DC Lahore said that AC Raiwind had also shared a detailed report about the absent officials and worst state of cleanliness in the locality with the DC and demanded her to lodge an inquiry into the issue. It is pertinent to mention that Lahore DC is the LWMC chairperson and recently she deputed her administrative staff to check the presence of LWMC officials in the field as well as the cleanliness situation of the city with pictorial evidence.

Following these orders, all assistant commissioners of the city started sharing data about cleanliness and absent officials with the DC Lahore which completely exposed the LWMC’s working capacity.

The scribe tried to contact LWMC MD Khalid Nazir and GM Operations Sohail Malik on their official cell phones but they didn’t attend nor reply till our going to the press. However, LWMC spokesman said that LWMC MD had also written a letter to the high-ups regarding the situation. When asked about the contents of the letter, he said that was confidential.