Civic workers in B’luru on indefinite strike seeking regularisation of jobs

BENGALURU: With civic workers in the city on strike from Tuesday, seeking regularisation of jobs, Bengaluru may well turn into a garbage city if the authorities don’t act quickly.

The pourakarmikas who are on contract have alleged irregularities in the regularisation process and have demanded that the whole process be redone in a transparent manner. They have also embarked on an indefinite strike at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) headquarters.

The civic workers are demanding regularisation of jobs.

Last month, the state government had agreed to regularise the jobs of contract pourakarmikas and in the first phase, 3,643 civic workers’ jobs were to be regularised. However, it is alleged that BBMP officials had favoured some people and, in some cases, took bribes of Rs 2-3 lakh, and included the names of many from one family, and new recruits, while ignoring the older employees, the civic workers have alleged.

They have demanded that the list prepared last week should be scrapped and that the jobs of all contract workers should be regularised. They had set a deadline of February 27 and have embarked on an indefinite strike from Tuesday. They have also threatened that the roads will not be swept.

Ashok Gowda, AITUC district secretary.

“The provisional list prepared by the BBMP does injustice to many pourakarmikas. The government had promised to regularise the jobs of 11,000 pourakarmikas but is now cheating us. In the provisional list, 3-4 members of one single family have been selected for regularisation. The BBMP officials have prepared the list arbitrarily and our protest is against this. Till they regularise the jobs of all 11,000 contract workers, we will not budge from here”, said Ashok Gowda, AITUC district secretary.

Indiramma, a civic worker, said, “Till they issue orders regularising our jobs, we will not move from here, come rain or shine. We have worked hard for so many years and the government and BBMP should keep its promise to us”. Ronamma, another civic worker, said, “No names have been included from our ward. When we question, the officials give us evasive replies”.