The civic body has announced the schedule for one-time biometric registration of pourakarmikas in various zones, which it aims to complete by October 10. Only once the process is completed can the authorities roll out the much awaited biometric attendance for the workforce.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has billed biometric attendance as the way to pruning the inflated count of 32,000 pourakarmikas on the rolls. Officials estimate that at least 40% of names are fake.
However, solid waste management activists and pourakarmika unions allege that with no third-party audit of the rolls, the BBMP may be squandering its best chance to uncover the scam and clean up the system.
In the system now in place, the assistant executive engineer of each ward will undertake the biometric registration of pourakarmikas on a designated date and those who register will remain on the rolls. “This is definitely not a foolproof system as councillors and contractors will still influence these rolls, which will make even biometric-verified rolls untrustworthy,” said Ramprasad, an SWM expert.
Maitreyi Krishnan of the BBMP Guttige Pourakarmikara Sangha said the rolls can be verified, but only if the civic body works with the unions. “While we have extended our full cooperation, the BBMP has not responded to us. They have gone ahead with notifying the schedule for biometric registration,” she said.
In fact, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad had ordered a third-party audit at the ward level, but following immense pressure from councillors and contractors, the circular was withdrawn on July 18. Subsequently, a verification by BBMP officials was conducted. “The matter is also pending in the High Court, where there are directions to submit the list after verification. If the biomteric registration list has any fakes, it will be contended in court,” Mr. Ramprasad said.
Mr. Manjunath Prasad conceded that the biometric registration under way may not be a fool-proof clean-up of the system.
There are some unions and contractors adding names even now. He said a contractor, who tried to disrupt biometric registration in R.T. Nagar, is not facing a police case. “Just because one is on the biometric-verified rolls, it doesn’t mean they have bagged a contract with the BBMP,” the Commissioner said.
The State government has set a rule of one pourakarmika for every 700 citizens. “The extrapolated population of the city based on the 2011 census comes to a maximum of 1.25 crore. According to the norms, we can employ 17,857 pourakarmikas. We will use the biometric-verified rolls as the basis to select the first 18,000 pourakarmikas based on seniority,” he said.
