Bengaluru Mayor R Sampath Raj paid a surprise visit on Wednesday to the BBMP West Zone to find out if all pourakarmikas or civic workers were working but he was faced with a volley of questions from them over denial of their wages.
Under pressure, Sampath Raj took the zonal officials to task over the issue. Speaking to West Zone Joint Commissioner Venkatachalapathy, Sampath was allegedly quoted as saying, "“What is stopping you from paying the pourakarmikas? It was only because of your negligence that Mr Subramani (a pourakarmika) committed suicide. Do you want to see some more deaths because of non-payment of salaries?", as per Deccan Chronicle.
Following the death of Subramani, the BBMP in a meeting decided to make Zonal Commissioners accountable for payment of salaries of pourakarmikas
He further directed Venkatachalapathy to serve notices to all officials and that they should be relieved of their duties and transferred only after the pending dues of all pourakarmikas are cleared.
The mayor's visit came at a time when complaints were raised by some pourakarmikas that their supervisors were not allowing them to mark their attendance via biometric authentication. Pourakarmikas in the city mark their attendance thrice a day, based on which they are paid salaries.
Mythri K from Guthige Pourakarmikara Sangha said that this was happening in spite of the mayor reminding officials of their duties. “Despite the council resolution last week, workers are being stopped from using the biometric attendance system in several places. Moreover, the Mayor had personally informed the Palike officials concerned about the resolution. This behaviour is very unfortunate. Supervisors are putting the lives of pourakarmikas at risk.” Mythri said as per The Hindu
The development comes at a time when hundreds of pourakarmikas in the city are protesting against the BBMP over unpaid wages. Some pourakarmikas have been paid partial wages while others have not been paid wages for over six months now. The protests intensified after the death of Subramani, a pourkarmika at Ward Number 77 Dattatreya Temple, who took his life on July 8.