LAHORE: While the workers across the country marked International Labour Day on Thursday, the Pakistan Railways launched a major operation to seal a number of factories and business premises in Badami Bagh.

The railways teams sealed 160 units and locked some workers, guards and other duty staff on the business premises by blocking the main gates, ignoring the significance and sanctity of the Labour Day. There are reports that the workers locked inside came out of their workplaces by scaling the boundary walls.

`I don`t know who has advised Lahore railways management to launch a major operation on the Labour Day in the factory area (Badami Bagh) on the pretext of recovery of dues or eviction of the business community from the railwayowned land. It is also surprising to see such worst action against the businessmen, many of them have already expressed willingness to pay railways the dues. Over 60 people have already deposited pay orders amounting to millions of rupees to the railways in a bid to enter the regularisation process initiated by the railways,` an official source in the Pakistan Railways says while sharing with Dawn the background to the issue.

An operation carried out on April 25 by the railway teams also confirmed initiation of the process to regularise business premises (factories, warehouses, mills etc) running on the department`s land since long.

According to the official, the ongoing operations by the current administration in PR Lahore division are not justified as the PR, instead of sealing the units, should better regularise those that already have paid dues and negotiate with the remaining ones that are yet to pay dues.

`How can they retrieve the land where a huge number of factories, houses, shops, restaurants, marriage halls, housing societies etc have already been developed allegedly in connivance with the railways` own officers/officials? Where was the railways 30/40 years ago?` the official asked. `What is the fault of poor labourers/workers who are always dealt with badly as the railways team did on the Labour Day on May 1 at Badami Bagh?` he continuedwhile lashing out at the administration.

According to another official, a major operation was also planned in Makkuana (near Faisalabad) where a large number of shops, houses and other structures were constructed decades ago. According to him, there was a railway line passing throughthisarea andtheland alongthis track was owned by the PR. But, later this railway section was closed and the people possessed a major chunk of the land. But the PR is yet to know about the ownership of the exact measurement of the land. `The operation was planned on May 1. But it couldn`t be carried out when the local PR officials reported to the Lahore railway admin about nonavailability of the GIS mapping of the land. At this, the officials were first directed to eitherlaunch an operation or face criminal cases. They were later directed to better do GIS mapping of the area.

According to another official, a number of operations have also been carried out in the Mehmood Booti (Lahore) area.

But due to the absence of a viable policy, the railway is yet to get fruitful results.

`This all is being done just to please the minister for railways who is yet to know about the exact situation,` the official said, adding that the best way to earn revenue from the railway land was to regularise this either through auction or any other legal way.

`If the officers concerned don`t do so, the railways will get nothing except earning a bad name,` he warned and alleged that there were also reports thatthe PR field officials used to receive thousands of rupees from the people while desealing the properties.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the PR Lahore Division has stated that the teams in Badami Bagh sealed 160 business premises on Thursday. `Ten were sealed too on Wednesday,` he said.

However, he couldn`t respond when asked about the sealing operation and locking of some workers inside the factory premises at the time when the workers were commemorating the Labour day.

PR Divisional Superintendent Tariq Latifsaid thatthe reasonbehindlaunching the operation in Badami Bagh on the Labour Day was to avert happening of any untoward event with the factory owners.

`It was a holiday on May 1 and no workers were present in any factory. Yes, there were some security guards whom we allowed to stay at the time of sealing the premises,` Mr Latif explained while talkingto thisreporter.

He said the industrial units, warehouses etc had to pay Rs675m to the railways and those ready to pay their respective fee to railways whether in the form of installments or full amount would be encouraged.

`If anyone has already submitted pay orders to the railways, they would be allowed to open the business place,` he said, adding that the PR teams didn`t lock any workers inside during the operation. `Such allegations are false and baseless,` he claimed.