Mandya: Pourakarmikas yet to get two-month salary

City Municipal Council (CMC) President Lokesh, during a meeting on Wednesday, announced that the pourakarmikas (Civic workers), who are responsible for Mandya getting the clean city tag, would be taken on a two-day tour, as a thanksgiving gesture.

But, ironically, the CMC has failed to meet the even the basic requirement of pourakarmikas — salary — since two months.

It has become inevitable for the civic workers to go in search of jobs to distant places to maintain their families. As many as 176 civic workers are working under contract basis in the civic body. According to a CMC official, tenders have been invited for solid waste management and the process is in the final stages.  “The salary bills have already been dispatched to the Urban Development Department.  According to norms, the contractor has to pay the monthly wages to civic workers and get the bills passed from the CMC. Since the current contractor’s tenure has come to an end, he has not paid the salaries since two months, leaving the workers in a lurch,” he said.

Absent for work
Out of 176 pourakarmikas, 95 to 105 workers are attending to work every day on an average.

Some are absent since a month as they have found jobs at other places. According to rules, each worker is paid a basic minimum wage of Rs 248 per day and about Rs 7,000 per month. The pourakarmikas, who are dependent on the monthly salary, are affected badly. Following the shortage of civic workers, the city, which has been declared as the sixth cleanest city in the country, is left with uncleared garbage and daily waste collection has been hit.

However, CMC’s Environmental Engineer Sneha said the salaries would be disbursed soon. During the meeting on Wednesday,  the CMC president too said that their salaries would be paid next week, when the councillors intervened and stressed on paying salaries on priority and then plan for a trip, she said.
DH News Service