Power project workers in Kaghan valley go on strike

MANSEHRA: The labourers working on the 830 megawatts Suki Kanari Hydropower Project on Thursday suspended work and held a protest demonstration to demand wages and other incentives according to the labour laws.

“Our strike will continue until our demands, which are basic rights of the labourers, are met by the company executing this mega energy project in Kaghan valley,” Tahir Hussain Shah, a labour leader, told the protesting workers in Paras area of the Kaghan valley. The protesters, who abandoned work and assembled at the dam site raised slogans against the GCC Company and in support of their demands. “We would not allow any sort of work on this dam till the acceptance of our demands,” said Tahir Shah. Another labour leader, Mohammad Arshad, said that they were not being given the safety, food and weather allowance as hundreds of workers were putting their lives in danger in such harsh weather in the Kaghan valley.

STRAY DOGS: The district health department in collaboration with the tehsil municipal administration has launched a two-day drive to eliminate stray dogs in Balakot. “This drive would continue for two days as dozens of people, including women and children are bitten by stray dogs in Balakot and its neighbouring union councils in recent weeks,” M Jaffar, the sanitary officer at the TMA Balakot, told reporters.