7,000 BBMP employees to strike work on Thursday, stage protest at head office

BENGALURU: About 7,000 employees of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in all the 198 wards will stage a protest from 9 am on Thursday at the head office seeking fulfilment of their various demands. The employees belong to all wings including revenue, health, education, markets, planning and administration and will go on mass leave.

The employees, including officers and staff, say their petitions to the Chief Minister and the BBMP chief commissioner have gone in vain. Their demands include timely disbursal of benefits as per rules, equal pay for equal work for employees absorbed into BBMP, health cards for all employees, facility for availing treatment in private medical institutes and filling up of vacant posts through promotion.

Employees’ association president A Amritraj said the Palike has ignored their demands.

The BBMP Employees’ Association president A Amritraj said all employees will stop work on Thursday and take part in the protest. “In view of the upcoming Assembly election, the work load has increased and hence, work related to the revenue secton should be reduced. There are several vacant posts at the junior levels which should be filled immediately. If an engineer’s post is vacant, it is filled up in 24 hours, but other posts continue to remain vacant”, he said.

Further, he said the BBMP staff cannot avail treatment in the Manipal Hospitals group and other private hospitals too do not provide treatment to BBMP employees. “The Kempegowda Day and Ambedkar Day celebrations have not been held for 2-3 years, which is a shame. The CM should immediately order for the Kempegowda Day celebrations before the elections”, he demanded.