Cleaners beg' for their dues

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has undertaken various measures under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,  but conservancy workers, who play a major role in keeping the city clean, have been allegedly denied of their salary and provident fund (PF). Their salaries for the last three months are unpaid.  

To showcase their plight, over 1,000 employees organised an agitation called ‘bheek maango andolan’ in which several conservancy workers begged on the street in front of the BMC headquarters on Thursday. Kachara Vahtook Shramik Sangh (KVSS), a union of conservancy workers, which had organised the agitation, alleged that BMC has not paid their salaries for the past three months.

According to KVSS officials, the BMC has been turning a blind eye towards the conservancy workers. While they are recruited on a contractual basis, they are paid a remuneration of only Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 every month. In addition to this, they are also paid less by contractors than their monthly wages.

Milind Ranade, general secretary of KVSS, said, “Since the BMC has not been able to pay their wages for three months, conservancy workers begged on the street to raise the money for the civic body. If their salaries are not paid by December 7, we will hold a morcha against the state government at Mantralaya.”

These workers are deprived of basic facilities, such as the mandatory PF and health insurance. The BMC says it does not have funds to pay these workers, said KVSS officials.

“Out of a total 2700 conservancy workers, the BMC first short listed 1600 to employ on a permanent basis. But in 2016, it revised the list taking only 191 employees on a permanent basis. The other aspirants were rejected over shabby reasons like a spelling mistake in the name of the employee on his salary card,” said a KVSS official.

A conservancy worker who participated in the agitation said, “We have made several complaints to the civic body about the contractor paying us less, but it was of no use. The contractor pays us about

Rs 1,000 less than our actual salary. We are told that the deducted amount is contributed to the Employees’ Provident Fund and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI). But till date, we have not been able to utilise the amount.”