Waste piles up after workers’ strike against non-payment

LAHORE:Most roads of the City are littered with waste as thousands of workers of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) have stopped working over nonpayment of salaries for two months.

Heaps of waste along major roads as well as overflowing skips can be seen in commercial and residential localities. Over 1,000 workers from both Turkish contractors have left working because they have not been paid salaries for the last two months. They include drivers and their helpers, so many vehicles can’t perform the field duty daily. “This has been going on for the past two months and waste is being disposed of in nearby empty plots in several localities such as Sabzaar, Allama Iqbal Town, Taj Bagh and Mughalpura etc,” said a sanitary worker.

On the other hand, LWMC Chairman Riaz Hameed Chaudhary chaired a meeting with the core operations department of the company. MD Shahzaib Hasnain, Deputy Managing Director Tariq Hussain Bhatti and heads of other departments also attended. The LWMC chairman said there would be no tolerance of negligence and officers should work dedicatedly or go home. He also directed the operation staff to make sure Lahore remained clean before, during and after Eid. The LWMC must work in close coordination with its Turk contractors, the MD said, adding that a daily monitoring report must be submitted to ensure effectiveness of the operation.

LWMC DMD Tariq Hussain told The News that salaries of all workers would be cleared today. He said the issue pertained to around 1,000 workers who were not on the payroll of the company.

The LWMC chairman said that a board meeting was called Tuesday evening to discuss the issue. He said the company was making a proposal to take all the 1,000 workers on its own payroll to end the issue forever.

Our correspondent adds: The governing body of the Lahore Development Authority has accorded formal approval to the construction of 35,000 apartments for government employees in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

LDA Vice-Chairman S.M. Imran presided over the 4th meeting of the governing body which was attended by Members of Provincial Assembly Sadia Sohail Rana, Umer Aftab Dhillon, and Muhammad Atif. The meeting allowed modification in the scheme plan of LDA City for the purpose where the apartments will be constructed on more than 8,000 Kanal land situated at Halloki. The project has been named as LDA City Naya Pakistan Apartments. The meeting also decided to receive building plans approval charges of high-rise buildings in four equal quarterly installments in view of the Covid-19 situation.