Bengaluru: The biometric system may have done away with ghost pourakarmikas, but the 2000, who have not received their salaries since January, are now threatening to go on strike.
The BBMP maintains that with the introduction of biometric system, the number of pourakarmikas has come down to 17,000 and those of them, who have submitted details of their ESI and PF, have received their salaries. It also insists that ward committees should authenticate the details of the pourakarmikas so that their salaries can be disbursed. But Mr Ram Prasad, co-founder, Friends of Lake says the major issue is who will authenticate the details of the pourakarmikas. “Will the ward committees sign the list after the authentication or the Assistant ward engineer (AWE) ? And will he also submit the list to the court?” he asks.
While the ward committees can authenticate the list of pourakarmikas, he regrets that not one meeting has been held in any of the 198 wards to do this. “ The problem is that neither the ward committees nor the AWE are signing the document. There is also apprehension that if the list is not verified, the BBMP commissioner can be pulled up and if the ward committee authenticated list is found to be incorrect , the commissioner can take a punitive action,” he explains. On the controversy over the ratio of the population and pourakarmikas, Mr Prasad says it has to be the standard 1:700.
