In a major victory for pourakarmikas across the State who have been on strike since Monday, the state government has agreed to their demand of making direct payments of wages to their bank accounts. This will reduce the role of contractors, who earlier remitted the wages after submitting list of contract pourakarmikas on their roles to the civic bodies.
The state government has also agreed to look into the process of regularisation of all contract pourakarmikas, sources said.
The 6,000 contract pourakarmikas working for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, who have gathered at Bannappa Park here, will end their strike today. They had been demanding for direct payment and regularisation of their services.
Minister of Social Welfare H. Anjaneya and Minister of State for Municipalities and Local Bodies Eshwara Bhimanna Khandre, along with city Mayor, met the protesters gathered at Bannappa Circle and promised to chalk out the implementation in a meeting scheduled later this week.
Clifton D’Rozario, advocate with Manthan Law, said this was a huge step forward for contract worker rights.
According to C.P. Appanna, state secretary of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions, sometimes when there were just 50 to 100 workers in a ward, contractors claimed at least 250 to 300 were working. "The government’s decision to directly credit the wages in the pourakarmikaa’ accounts will save a lot of money for the BBMP that goes to paying inflated numbers of workers," noted Mr. D’Rozario.
Meanwhile, with the contract pourakarmikas on strike, garbage could be seen piled up across the city. The situation had compounded with the strike, as for the past six days, residents of Kannur village have stopped garbage trucks from entering Bellahalli and Mittiganahalli quaries.
Mysuru
The situation was similar in Mysuru as well, as heaps of garbage could be found in most parts of the city.
Garbage piled up in the core areas was cleared by permanent pourakarmikas; but remained remained uncleared in the remaining parts of the city.
Mayor Ravi Kumar and Mysuru City Corporation’s Health Officer D.G. Nagaraj visited Devaraja Mohalla, the hub of commercial activities in the city centre, with pourakarmikas in the morning and supervised garbage disposal and cleaning.
Though the striking pourakarmikas took exception to the permanent pourakarmikas not extending support to them and carrying out the cleanliness work, the MCC officials persuaded the protestors not to disrupt the work in the interest of Mysuru which has been a ‘model’ under Swachh Bharat.
Srinivas from the Mysuru City Corporation Contract and Permanent Pourakarmikas’ Association told The Hindu that the cleanliness work had been badly affected in the city. “We have stick to our demand and won’t call off the strike until all our demands are met,” he said, adding that the government had responded positively to their demands and a “positive outcome” is expected in a few hours from now.
Dr. Nagaraj said if the strike is called off, “we will work overtime and ensure that the city is clear of garbage.”
Tumakuru
Meanwhile, the pourakarmikas of 10 urban local bodies of Tumakuru district, including Tumakuru City Corporation, continued to stage a day and night dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here, demanding regularisation of services.
Though the government had assured to regularise their services by March 2017, the contractors’ lobby is preventing the government from implementing this, alleged N.K. Subramanya, general secretary of District Pourakarmikara Sangha.
President of Safai Karmachari Kaval Samiti S.H.Chandrappa said, “It is our long pending demand and we will continue our dharna till the government agrees to implement all our demands.”
