Garbage contractors call for strike, waste disposal at stake

The daily garbage collection across Bengaluru is likely to be hit from Friday as garbage contractors with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have called for an indefinite stir citing delay in payment.

According to S N Balasubramanian, president of the BBMP Garbage Contractors’ Association, the civic body has not cleared their bills for seven months in a row. “Over Rs 248 crore is pending with the BBMP. With such huge pending dues, how can we carry out our work?” he said.

According to Balasubramanian, over 10,000 people are working on door-to-door garbage collection and the contractors have been struggling to pay them due to this inordinate delay.

“BBMP officials boast of paying all pourakarmikas on time. Our door-to-door garbage collection workers also do the same amount of work. We are not able to pay them regularly owing to delay in payments from the BBMP,” he said.

“We also have to ensure the payment of PF and ESI on time or else we will face the wrath of the central government,” he added.

Last two strikes

However, this is not the first time they have threatened to go on strike. This is the third time the contractors have planned to stop operations in the last six months.

“The first time, the BBMP Chief Commissioner assured us that the payments would be made at the earliest. The second time, we got a written assurance from the Chief Minister’s Office. Now, we have no hope that the BBMP officials will resolve the issue. We want to discuss the issue only with the chief secretary,” Balasubramanian said.

BBMP officials, however, said they are ready to address any grievances. “We will address all their genuine grievances. We have requested them to call off the strike. The city’s garbage collection should not be affected owing to such conflicts,” said Sarfaraz Khan, BBMP Joint Commissioner(SWM).

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