TMA workers want allowances included in salaries

aKARAK, April 13: The Municipal Employees Union has demanded of the authorities to include ad hoc relief allowances in their basic pay and implement the recommendations of Pay and Pension Commission in true sense. The low paid employees were passing through difficult time as they could not manage their kitchens and schooling of their children, said Azam Khan Khattak, the district president of the union, while addressing a large number of workers here on Wednesday. He hoped that the movement of municipal employees would reach its logical end. The last public protest of the employees would be held at Islamabad on April 27, he said. Employees of all three tehsils of the district were present on the occasion. Mr Khattak said that skyrocketing prices and stoppage of their salaries time and again made their live miserable. He said that government announced ad hoc relief allowances for municipal employees but failed to give permanent relief to them. He said that ad hoc relief allowances should be merged in the basic pay of employees to end their financial woes. He added that their salaries should be increased according to price hike. He said that recommendations of Pay and Pension Commission should be implemented in true sense. He said that 30 per cent of the amount allocated for developmental projects of TMA was spent on salaries and pensions of employees and municipal services instead of uplift schemes. Mr Khattak said that provincial government objected to the practice and stopped paying 30 per cent share to Karak TMA that created problems in paying salaries to the employees. The union leader said if government did not release the amount to Karak TMA it would not be able to pay salaries and pensions to employees. "Besides that, the TMA will not be able to provide municipal services to Karak city," he added. He said that they would continue struggle for their rights. "The employees of Karak TMA will fully participate in the protest on April 27 in Islamabad," he added. —Correspondent