Some workers and labourers who have been denied salary and other arrears from industrial houses will file a criminal complaint against Deputy Commissioner S. Ziyaullah, for failing to recover the dues from companies and distributing them to the victims.
Ram Apte, convenor of Shoshan Mukti Dal, a Belagavi-based trade union organisation, told presspersons in Belagavi on Friday that the workers had approached the DC several times, but in vain. “There is no other option left for us, other than this,’’ he said. “Several courts have ruled in our favour. Wherever we have been challenged, we have approached the High Court and won. Despite having orders of the High Court, we are unable to get our wages, as the DC is neglecting his duties as the recovery officer,’’ he said. The DC’s ‘dereliction’ of duty attracts criminal charges as he is not carrying out his bounden duty. Hence the case, Mr. Apte, the nonagenarian High Court advocate, said.
According to him, 11 firms, mostly from Belagavi city, owed around ₹1.5 crore in back wages and other arrears to workers. In each case, a court or competent authority has ordered that the arrears be paid. In many cases, we have recovery certificates issued by the Karnataka High Court. Some of the cases were pending for 17 years. We have met all DCs in the last 17 years, but none has helped us, Mr. Apte said.
He distributed copies of a judgment of the Maharashtra High Court’s Nagpur bench that said that Deputy Commissioners or District Collectors who do not follow the orders of recovering dues from employers are liable for disciplinary action.
He alleged that traders and industrialists were routinely bribing the DC office staff to postpone or escape the payment. Sometimes, the revenue inspectors or village accountants who are sent to the industries to seek recoveries, come back and file false and wrong reports. In one case, a revenue officer gave a report that an employer who was supposed to pay arrears had died. This was false, as the employer was alive and had just bribed the officer to give a false report, Mr. Apte said.
