Bengaluru: Worker's Suicide Wakes Up BBMP, Rs 27.01 Cr Released For Pending Salaries

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the municipal corporation of Bengaluru released Rs 27.01 crore towards payment of pending salaries of ‘pourakarmikas’ (civic workers). BBMP had received massive flak over the death of a pourakarmika, Subramani, who took his own life allegedly over non-payment of salary for over six months. The number of pourakarmikas who have not been paid their dues is more than 20,000.

BBMP itself has admitted to not having paid salaries to 3,385 workers, who have less than a year’s experience, for the past six months. N Manjunath Prasad, the BBMP Commissioner said in a meeting which convened on Tuesday that after verification of the biometric attendance, 3,385 workers with less than one year’s experience will be paid by the zonal commissioner, latest by Wednesday, as reported by the Hindu.

He said, “The biometric attendance of all pourakarmikas shall be downloaded from the portal on the first day of every month so that the salaries can be released on or before seventh of every month. We will also ensure that the ESI and PF of all employees are linked and remitted to all the workers within three days, under the supervision of assistant executive engineers and assistant controllers of finance”, as reported by The Times of India.

The Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) of BBMP has ordered a release of funds to the zonal bank accounts, from where it will be then transferred to individual bank accounts of the pourakarmikas.

Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner, Health and Solid Waste Management said that as per government guidelines, the prescribed ratio is one pourakarmika for every 700 people, however, as per the biometric identification system’s data, there are 2,500 workers extra, who have now been working for over a year. “However we have decided to retain them and put them to work in parks, playgrounds and commercial hubs where the workload is high. There were also several hundreds of people who came to the system from last year, expecting to be regularized. Payments have also been released to these 3,385 pourakarmikas working for various amounts of time up till June, after which they will be relieved.”

Khan also told NDTV that workers who have been working with BBMP for more than one year are genuine pourakarmika and even the workers’ union accept the same.

Speaking about Subramani, he said, “He had joined us about six months ago as a pourakarmika (sanitation worker)”, further adding that, “In his letter, he said he had been working as an auto-helper, previously. And then also as a pourakarmika. But one person cannot be working in both the places. So, that also has to be verified.”

Mayor of Bengaluru, K Sampath Raj has promised a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the BBMP worker Subramani as well as a job to his wife Kavitha.