Wapda workers protest against price hike

LAHORE:Hundreds of Wapda/electricity workers took out a procession on Monday from Bakhtiar Labour Hall under the aegis of All Pakistan Wapda Hydroelectric Workers Union CBA to protest the price-hike of essential commodities, aggravating unemployment and irrational gap between the rich and poor, creating inequality in society.

The procession was led by veteran trade union leader Khurshid Ahmad, general secretary of the union. Khurshid Ahmad urged that the premier had promised to establish a state like that of Madina state but the cost of essential commodities had become out of reach in the country. The situation of unemployment can be gauged from the fact that for 32 posts of bill distributors in Lahore Electric Supply Company, 75,000 applications were received.

They labour leaders demanded the government not to privatise profitable utilities like Guddu Power Station and Lahore and Islamabad electric supply companies. The participants passed a resolution and appealed to the Wapda authorities to raise pay scales of Wapda staff, hydel power workers, class-IV employees and drivers, etc and raise allowance commensurate with price-hike. The participants adopting another resolution demanding the policy makers to allocate more resources for developing hydel power stations and new dams to meet the national requirement for cheap electricity and rising need of water for agriculture and 220 million citizens since Wapda gydel power station had been generating cheap electricity.

Meanwhile, the labour leaders also urged the UN General Secretary and the working class of the world to help stop genocide of people of Indian-Held Kashmir.