?500 cr ESI, PF unpaid to pourakarmikas

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday charged that contractors hadn’t paid dues upwards of Rs500 crores in Employees State Insurance (ESI) and Provident Fund (PF) to pourakarmikas in the past five years.

AAP state president Mukhyamantri Chandru, party state Vice President and Bangalore city incharge Mohan Dasari and party state organising secretary BT Naganna threatened to stage a protest if the amount wasn’t released in a timely manner.

Chandru, a former Congressman trained his guns on Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, calling his ‘Brand Bengaluru’ plan ‘branded corruption’, adding that dues to sanitation workers was more important compared to the image of the city.

He also charged Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) of having an “adjustment” with the contractors in question, even providing documents over the same.

“More than 500 crores of ESI and PF money from the salaries of the pourakarmikas who are maintaining the health and cleanliness of Bengaluru city have remained unpaid for the last five years. The BBMP and garbage disposal contractors are playing with the future and health of pourakarmikas. This is an alarming development,” Chandru said.

“The total number of pourakarmikas in BBMP, only for garbage management, is 32,000. Surprisingly, only 700 of them are permanent. The corporation is paying direct wages only to 16,000 pourakarmikas. Another 16,000 workers are working under contract agencies. Three months of salary is always overdue for payment to pourakarmikas,” he added.

He named Sri Bhuvaneshwari Enterprises, Hatari security services, Noveli security services, Directed security services, Detectwel security services and Kumar C as the contractors who hire pourakarmikas in BBMP West Zone.

“The corporation has not made any direct payment to the solid waste management workers till date. The contractors have not paid the construction workers' cess. Through this, we can assess the illegal internal adjustment between BBMP and the contractors,” Naganna said.

“The payment to all these contractors should be withheld. The payment towards welfare and health fund of pourakarmikas should be made immediately and the accused should be arrested and investigated under Section 85 (A) of the ESI Act at the earliest. If the government does not take strict action against the accused soon, a massive protest will be held along with pourakarmikas organizations in the coming days,” Dasari said.