Hundreds of pourakarmikas staged a protest outside the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) head office on Wednesday, ahead of the monthly council meeting. The pourakarmikas, who had gathered under the aegis of the Karnataka State City Corporations, City Councils and Town Councils’ Pourakarmikas Federation, demanded that the BBMP immediately pay their salary pending for five months, regularise services, and conduct an an inquiry on “benami pourakarmikas”.
Mayor R. Sampath Raj and BBMP’s Joint Commissioner (SWM and Health) Sarfaraz Khan met them and assured them of looking into their demands.
In the council meeting, the issue was raised by Opposition Leader Padmanabha Reddy. He demanded that the BBMP rework the micro planning by taking into consideration the IPD Salappa report, which recommended one pourakarmika for every 500 people. Currently, the BBMP is following the Government Order of having one pourakarmika for every 700 people.
Mr. Khan informed the council that the zonal commissioners had been asked to verify the number of pourakarmikas in each zone, after some cases of bogus names were reported. He also said that the ESI and PF details of around 6,000 pourakarmikas, submitted by the garbage contractors, were not matching. “We are in talks with officials of both ESI and PF in this regard,” he said.
Mr. Raj directed the official to conduct an audit of the pourakarmikas required in each zone.
