Wasa employees forced to attend office despite closure

Rawalpindi : Though the Punjab government has announced holidays in local government departments working under it, however, the orders of Punjab Chief Minister seem to be not implemented in Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) as the employees are reportedly asked to be on duty by the management in the garb of participating in official meetings.

A good number of Wasa staff on anonymity condition alleged that due to outbreak of corona virus and its aggressive spread all over Punjab besides other provinces, Punjab Chief Minister, Usman Buzdar as preventive measures issued directions of closure of all Punjab government departments for period of two weeks. Though the orders of Punjab chief minister is being followed in all local government departments and offices of local bodies, however, the situation stands totally different in Wasa.

The staff alleged from the very first day of lockdown that they have been directed to come to office with the purpose of attending meetings. The meeting timings are also not fixed and we have to wait for hours for participating in them during which office timings also elapse, the employees claimed.

Similarly while waiting time for participation in meetings we are even forced to do our official duties as well, which they termed it an unjust step and clear violation of the orders of Punjab Chief Minister.

In order to get justice and get government orders implemented in letter and spirit, the employees have appealed to the Punjab chief minister as well as Rawalpindi Commissioner to take notice and issue necessary directions to the Wasa Managing Director for strictly following government directives.

On the other hand, when this correspondent approached Chairman, Tariq Murtaza, he didn't refute to the claims by staff members.

Clearing the matter, he said that the presence of 50 percent employees which include officials in a responsible body like Wasa. If all our employees are given off then how the system would run, he asked. We have certain mega projects in hand to work and get them initiated on time if entire staff is asked to sit in their homes how work could be done and completed. Being a local government body Wasa dealing relates with public who visit to get their basic problems entertained and resolved.

The chairman fully agreed with serious spread of corona virus and said necessary steps required to prevent staff and visiting people from being infected have been taken. Adding the chairman said that we could not ignore and adopt negligent attitude towards public basic grievances and have to work for resolving them at the earliest. All preventive and precautionary steps have been adopted in both in Wasa and RDA for the protection and safety of staff and public to combat coronavirus. In this view presence of 50 per cent employees is necessary, the chairman cleared while concluding his remarks.