Bengaluru: Pourakarmikas ‘arbitrarily’ transferred, not paid for months

Hundreds of pourakarmikas risking their lives to keep the city clean amid the surging Covid-19 cases have not been paid for over four months due to arbitrary transfers.

Thousands of them have also been denied salary due to an arbitrary rule that has put 2,800 people out of their jobs. Officials have consistently ignored this when the BBMP Pourakarmika Association brought the issue to their notice over the last two years and have turned their back to the issue now citing Covid work.

The association said 47 workers had been transferred on April 26 from Sampangirama Nagar without written notice and they have not been paid since December 2020. They were transferred "arbitrarily, unjustly and without following any protocol or procedure", it noted.

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Association president Nirmala said civic officials overlooked pertinent issues that require urgent solution. "There are many issues we have raised with the BBMP, but our demands have fallen on deaf ears," she said.

BBMP introduced direct payment and biometric attendance in January 2018 to weed out bogus workers and end contractor mafia. In effect, about 2,800 workers were dropped from the list citing they lacked the minimum one-year work experience. The workers, however, continued working without pay for three years hoping that the corporation would take them back.

Flawed logic

Lekha Adavi from the Alternative Law Forum that assists the association said the ratio of 1 pourakarmika per 700 residents fixed by the BBMP is flawed.

"These are people shouldering enormous amounts of responsibility with minimum rights. It has been five years since their wages were revised. Though they are recognised as essential workers, there is no effort to pay them a just compensation," she said.

Ekta Mittal from the organisation Maraa said pourakarmikas in ward numbers 80 (Hoysala Nagar) and 58 (Tippasandra) were working without safety gear, a claim echoed by civic workers in Banaswadi who recently staged a protest after one civic worker succumbed to Covid-19.

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"The BBMP, at the thick of the pandemic, while attending to the crisis in Bengaluru, has to be held accountable for the non-payment of wages and must be questioned for this criminal negligence," she said.

Nirmala said such cases abound across the 198 wards. "We have submitted several memorandums to officials seeking corrective measures, but to no avail," she said.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta and Joint Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) Sarfaraz Khan did not respond to calls and messages.