GUJRAT: Scores of workers of the Gujrat Municipal Corporation continued their sit-in at Nawab Sahib Chowk on the L abour Day against non-payment of their salaries for the last four months.

Thirty workers of the municipal corporation (MC) were not paid the salaries by the department while the officials concerned in the local government department referred to some technical issues in the workers` recruitment due to which they could not be paid.

They have been holding the sit-in for almost a week now.

Some 400 daily-wage employees of the municipal corporation have also been terminated by the local government department due to a policy change which held that the previously recruited daily-wage workers could not be retained.

However, the department relaxed the condition for workers of sanitation branch in January but such workers in rest of the branches were sacked.

According to a fresh notification issued few days ago by the Punjab Local Government department, the daily-wage workers of all categories have been sacked and local bodies have been asked to make the fresh recruitments on a regular basis instead of daily wage in all the branches of municipality services.

Municipal Corporation Chief Officer Afzal Butt told Dawn the protesting workers had been the daily-wage employees of the then Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) which had become dysfunctional following the bifurcation of the TMA into different municipalities. They were sacked in December after the LG department verified the list of such workers. He said more than 400 daily-wage workers, including the sanitary workers, tube well operators, firemen, spray men, clerics, peons and computer operators, had been terminated from the municipal corporation in the wake of the fresh notification.

Mr Butt said the corporation had sought approval from the local government department for recruitment of at least 600 workers and officials on a regular basis, including 452 sanitary workers, 65 tube well operators and drivers.

Meanwhile, Gujrat Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood has also sought permission from the government to continue with the daily-wage workers until the completion of regular staf f.