Under fire for non-payment of wages to pourakarmikas for several months, which allegedly pushed one of them into ending his life on Monday, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), on Tuesday, released ₹27.01 crore towards payment of salaries for June.
However, by its own admission, the civic body had not paid salaries to 3,385 workers, with less than a year’s experience, for the past six months. S. Subramani, who committed suicide on Monday, was one of them.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said all arrears of six months for the 3,385 workers with less than one year experience will also be cleared by the zonal commissioners by Wednesday after verifying their bio-metric attendance as proof of work.
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Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP said, “These are workers who recently joined the workforce in the hope that they will be taken on the rolls. Besides, they are over and above the 700:1 ratio. So we had not paid them salaries.”
But the BBMP’s action did little to pacify the anger of citizens and activists, some of who took to the streets protesting against the civic body.