Pourakarmikas lodge plaint against BBMP

Pourakarmikas staged a protest in front of the Koramangala police station on Monday after the BBMP failed to pay their wages, pending for five months now.

The frustrated workers lodged a police complaint against the civic body, seeking immediate payment.

Unpaid since January, the sanitary workers took to the streets on several occasions, but of no avail.

“The BBMP is yet to categorise the pourakarmikas on a seniority basis and regularise their employment. Fake names haven’t been deleted from its biometric rolls, even though the process began in January. Several pourakarmikas working for many years are left out of the biometric list, while newcomers have made it,” the workers’ complaint to the police read.

The pourakarmikas from the Koramangala, Ejipura and Adugodi wards had started blocking the road in Koramangala as a part of their agitation, but were stopped by the police. The angered workers headed to the police station and lodged a complaint.

Maitreyi Krishnan, member of the BBMP Guttige Pourakarmikara Sangha, said: “Most of them are not paid for the past five months and a few have not been paid for two months.

The workers are facing a lot of trouble because of this, and so lodged a complaint. The police officials called the zone-level BBMP officials and directed them to pay the salaries.”

However, the BBMP officials clarified that the required documentation is completed and that only the salaries need to be credited to the workers’ bank accounts now.