Power project workers stage protest in Hazara

MANSEHRA: The labourers working on 830 megawatts Suki Kinari Hydropower Project on Monday staged protest to demand rights under national and international labour laws.

The labourers, who had halted work on the dam being built at Kunhar River in Kaghan valley some four days ago, took out a rally and marched on Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road for many hours.

The protesting labourers first blocked central bridges at dam site, which links river Kunhar with dam site for two hours and then took out the rally.The protesters were raising slogans in support of their demands. “We would continue the protest until our all demands are not met as the company despite signing an agreement with us doesn’t give us our basic rights under national and international labour laws,” Azhar Hussain Shah, a labour leader, told participants of the rally.

He said that workers had been observing strike for the last five days but neither high ups of the company nor officials of the district administration established contact with them.The labour leader said that they were working on the project on wages and incentives granted by labour laws in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other provinces.

Another leader, Tahir Hussain Shah, said that the government should ensure their wages, medical bills, leaves and other incentives equal to labourers working on such projects in other parts of the country.