AAP alleges fraud in payment of PF, ESI to contract staff in Bengaluru civic body

BENGALURU: Suspecting a fraud in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) over the non-payment of Provident Fund (PF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI) amount to contract employees for the last five years, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAM) state unit president Mukhyamantri Chandru on Friday demanded an inquiry by the state government over allegations of “misuse” of payment of Provident Fund and Employees State Insurance (ESI) amounting to a tune of Rs 500 crore in the last five years.

He suspected a collusion between officials concerned, corporators and also then MLAs to cheat the contractor employees of their PF and ESI amount and alleged that “in one way or the other all divisions are involved in cheating the contract employees.”

Continuing, he said, “Nobody knows the reasons for non-payment of PF and ESI amount to the contract employees and even the audit report mentions non-payment of PF and ESI amount to the contract employees. The documents obtained through the Right to Information Act reveal.”

Mukhyamantri Chandru told reporters that about 32,000 contractor workers engaged in cleaning the Bengaluru city divided in 8 zones and only 700 of them are permanent employees while about 16,000 work on contract basis and another 15,300 work under contractors. Even the salaries for the contractor employees are getting delayed and are paid once in about four months.

Over the non-payment of PF and ESI amount, the APP State Chief said “they are sucking blood of the contract employees” and wanted erring persons to be punished and initiate an inquiry to dig out the truth.

He cautioned the state government that if an inquiry was not initiated into the allegations of non-payment of PF and ESI amount to contract employees of BBMP, the AAP would launch protests in coming days.