CM Sindh orders to regularize 2601 LBOD employees

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday regularized the services of 2601 contingent employees of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD).

It may be recalled that the administrative control of Nawabshah Unit LBOD Stage-I was transferred from Wapda to Irrigation department in the beginning of 1999, while the assets of Sanghar and Mirpurkhas Unit were handed over in the end of 1999.

The administrative control of Spinal Drain, Kadhan Pateji Outfall Drain (KPOD), and the Tidal Link Canal along with the Baloch dykes was also transferred from Wapda to Managing Director Sindh Irrigation And Drainage Authority (SIDA) Hyderabad.

In this way, there were 6971 employees who reported to director Salinity Control and Reclamation (SCARP) North Rohri, Nawabshah and those who reported to MD SIDA Hyderabad were 1904. The total number of contingent or work-charge employees came to 2601.

On the instruction of CM Sindh, their posts were created in 2016-17. The chief minister has now approved a summary to regularize their services.

The chief minister, in order to give legal cover to the regularization of 2601 employees of LBOD, has directed Secretary Irrigation to draft an act of parliament for presentation in the cabinet and then in the assembly.

The costruction of LBOD was initiated in 1960 and was completed in the ’90s with financial support from international agencies as the World Bank.

The aim was to build a large artificial waterway roughly east of and parallel to the River Indus to carry salt water from the plains of Punjab and Sindh provinces to the Arabian Sea coast in the Badin region. The final segment of the LBOD consisted of building a tidal drain 26 miles (42 km) to the sea.