Hill Sector Chairman Union (HSCU) Peren district has appealed to the state government and the responsible department to release the pending salary of PWD labourers at the earliest.
In a press statement, the union president, I, Akwet Haibwang pointed out that PWD labourers were looking after almost all the PWD roads in the state by clearing the jungle along the roadside and filling up potholes and maintaining drainage.
However, work has been stopped due to non-payment of salaries for almost 18 to 19 months.
The union stated that the matter came to light, when it enquired on the poor condition of the PWD roads in the district particularly Hill Area came.
The union also claimed that apart from non-payment of salaries, the verification process carried out by the government based on the Aadhaar, have “forced maximum number of labourers to leave the job without even being paid for what they have done”.
According to HSCU, since most of the labourers were illiterate, any document issues should be looked by the department officials, block and division wise, but “instead of helping the poor and illiterate labour of their own, the department was trying to knock them out by taking advantages on their labourers / illiteracy”.
HSCU further stated that it welcomed the verification committee set up by the government, however urged the competent authority to verify and make necessary correction and ensured the not even a single genuine labourer should be missed out or left.
In the light of the above, the union has urged the government to take up the matter on top most priority and release their due share of pending salary at the earliest, and also asked the labourers to restart their work immediately.