K'taka govt cancels ‘unsatisfactory’ services of Karmika Bandhus

Having received several complaints about irregularities and work being unsatisfactory, the state government has decided to revoke the services of ‘Karmika Bandhus’ working under the Labour Department.

While their role was to facilitate unorganised workers to register themselves with the Labour Department and help them avail government services, a majority of them had stopped working over the years. There were 1,200 Karmika Bandhus working on a commission basis in 2018 when they were first hired, and this number gradually dropped to 250, officials in the department said.

According to a recent government order in this regard, the government has decided to drop the services of all Karmika Bandhus, who were functioning under the umbrella of ‘Ambedkar Karmika Sahaya Hasta’, which encompasses all the welfare schemes for workers under the Labour Department.

The order stated that their work was not “satisfactory” and that there were also several complaints against them.

According to officials in the Labour department, the concept of ‘Karmika Bandhu’ was meant to help spread awareness about the services under the Karnataka Building And Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board at the rural level.

“Not many knew about the welfare schemes. We had also begun issuing smart cards to workers registering with the department. The Karmika Bandhus were expected to function as intermediaries to spread awareness, help workers register with the Labour Department and aid them in applying for government schemes,” one official explained. 

While in 2018, there were about 1,200 Karmika Bandhus, who were working on a ‘commission basis,’ it was found that their numbers gradually dwindled to about 243 until recently. These, too, were found to be working irregularly. 

Complaints galore

Moreover, the department received several complaints about them seeking money from workers and regulating them turned out to be unwieldy, officials said. 

Having dropped Karmika Bandhus, the department will now encourage workers registered with them to use Seva Sindhu, Bapuji centres and other such government service points, for availing schemes. 

There are 44.28 lakh registered workers at this juncture with the Board.