Zubair Qureshi
The residents of the federal capital, particularly the G sectors, are suffering the worst sanitary conditions as sanitary workers have stopped to collect garbage from the residential areas leaving the entire city to dust and dirt.
At present these sectors are littered with garbage and trash and foul smell emitting from these heaps of garbage has made public life miserable.
Wednesday turned out to be the second consecutive day of non-collection of garbage by the sanitary staff of the CDA and keeping in view the present tug-of-war between the CDA Board and the private contractors who were awarded contracts by the former Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz there is little chance the matter will be resolved soon.
According to the CDA ex-Mayor had awarded these contracts to the private contractors illegally bypassing the law and the CDB Board in its recent meeting has cancelled all those illegally given contracts.
“We have not only cancelled the contracts but decided to register cases against those who have been given the contracts and also those who awarded the contracts illegally,” said a CDA official.
Former Mayor of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation did not follow the rules and favoured his near and dear ones, he further said.
the volume of the funds given under these contracts is so huge that we have decided to send the cases to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The private contractors on the other hand are of the view that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in order to settle scores with the main opposition party the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has cancelled the contracts and stopped the funds as well.
By doing so the CDA is causing unimaginable pain and anguish to the residents who are suffering in this tug-of-war.
CDA labour leader Chaudhry Yasin was of the view that traditionally municipal affairs of Islamabad’s G-series were taken care of by private contractors.
“These private contractors employ sanitary workers on daily wages and pay them around Rs12,500 monthly and in return CDA Sanitation Directorate releases funds to these contractors. However, after the CDA stopped payments to the contractors who further stopped payment to these workers,” said Ch Yasin.
He urged the CDA Chairman and the Directorate concerned to release funds at the earliest so that residents of Islamabad’s G sectors could heave a sigh of relief in fresh air.
Ch Yasin also questioned Rs12,500 being paid to the sanitary workers which is far below the minimum wages of Rs17000 fixed by the government in the last budget.
An official of the CDA when contacted for reaction said the matter will be resolved soon as the authority has taken notice of the strike and talks with the sanitary workers are underway.
