LARKANA: On the call of the Pakistan Railways employees’ Prem Union, the low-paid employees of the railways staged a sit-in at the railway station here on Wednesday against non-payment of salaries for two months.
The union leaders Khuda Bakhsh Noohani, Imam Bakhsh Luhar, Shakir, Faqir Ali Muhammad, and Sikandar Ali said that they were performing duties on a daily basis but had not received salaries for the last two months which was unjust. They said that their children were facing hunger now. They said that after the cruel rainy and flash floods season, the inflation rate had skyrocketed which was beyond the control of so many and the worst affected were the poverty-stricken masses.
They said that flour, ghee, milk and other daily staples are being sold at exorbitant prices by the shopkeepers at their own will which are never checked by the government authorities. They said that till now, due to non-payment of our salaries, the grocers are not giving us goods on a monthly credit basis due to which we are forced to go out on the streets.
They said that we are hired by officers for carrying out our duty on other railway tracks including Jacobabad, Shikarpur, BKT, Rohri and other tracks on which we pay the fares when the railways are closed and we are forced to discharge the duty to keep the trains moving. They said that the employee who has been on duty with us since 10 years of TL has also been brought down.
They appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Federal Minister of Railways Saad Rafique, General Manager Lahore, Chairman Railway and other officials to take notice of highhandedness and pay the salaries of the railway employees for two months and end the unrest. Otherwise, the scope of protest will be increased, they warned.