Many pourakarmikas of the Bruhat Bengaluru Manahanagara Palike, apart from being not paid, have also been denied Employee State Insurance (ESI) and Provident Fund (PF) benefits, it appears.
Owing to large-scale misappropriation and bogus names on the rolls of garbage contractors, the BBMP officials are now finding that ESI and PF benefits have not reached many pourakarmikas.
Maithreyi from the BBMP Guttige Pourakarmikara Sangha said the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Bengaluru, had ruled that BBMP was covered under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, only from January 2011.
The department had also recently stated that the BBMP owed ₹90.18 crore for the period between January 2011 and July 2017.
“Though the previous agreements with the garbage contractors mandated payment of ESI and PF, the pourakarmikas who have been with the BBMP for many years have clearly got a raw deal. The contractors have even deducted the amount from the salaries of the pourakarmikas,” she said. She also said the sangha had filed a complaint with the Regional PF Commissioner, urging the department to direct the BBMP to fulfil its role as a principal employer and make the remittance of the workers’ and BBMP’s contributions for PF for every contract pourakarmika itself.
Hefty penalty
Padmanabha Reddy, Opposition Leader in the BBMP council, alleged that the civic body’s officials have failed to remit the ESI and PF amount that has been deducted from the salaries of the pourakarmikas to the respective departments, resulting in a hefty penalty for the BBMP.
As a rule, the ESI and PF contributions have to be remitted to the respective departments before the 15th of every month. The BBMP started paying salaries to the pourakarmikas directly from January. “Though the ESI and PF contributions amounting to a total ₹4,687 a month have been deducted from the salaries of the pourakarmikas, it has not been remitted to the departments. The BBMP owes nearly ₹7.25 crore, in addition to around ₹2 crore as penalty, to these departments. Why should the tax payers’ money be used to pay penalty for officials’ dereliction of duty?” he asked.
BBMP’s Joint Commissioner (Solid Waste Management and Health) Sarfaraz Khan said that the civic body had filed a case with the Anti- Corruption Bureau seeking criminal investigation into the issue.
“There were clearly many bogus names on the rolls. The details submitted by the contractors are not matching with the records. We have been discussing the issue with the ESI and PF officials,” he said and added that there were some genuine cases [around 4,000 pourakarmikas] who have been denied ESI and PF benefits.
“The ESI and PF officials have suggested that we open new accounts for these pourakarmikas so that at least now onwards, they get ESI and PF benefits. We are trying best to fix the issue,” he added.
