With Pourakarmikas Strike Reaching 7th Day, Heaps of Garbage Seen Everywhere in City
Mangaluru: With the strike by sanitation workers/Pourakarmikas entering the seventh day, cleanliness in Mangaluru City has become a challenge for the authorities. Heaps of garbage can be seen at every nook and corner of the City. It not only raises stink but also creates a health hazard. What has added to their woes is that the striking sanitation workers have extended their strike further until their demands are met by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Thousands of sanitation workers in the state have been on a strike since last Monday, seeking direct recruitment and direct payment of salary by urban local bodies.
“The situation is worsening with each passing day and no steps are being taken by the government and the administration. We don’t know when the strike will end, we will get relief,” said Rajesh Kumar, a city resident. The residents are demanding the authorities take immediate steps to end the strike. Even as the appeals made by the chief minister and locally here by MLA Vedavyas Kamath have failed to evoke any positive response, the safai karamcharis have made it clear that the strike will continue till their demands are fulfilled.
On the other hand, protesting sanitation workers are not allowing the authorities to clear the garbage from the city. But with the help of the police and other authorities, nearly 60-70 trucks with few permanent government sanitation workers and temporary outsourced workers, are at work doing the cleanup. Meanwhile, the district administration and Mangaluru City Corporation have issued directions to the officials to take immediate initiatives to deal with the situation. The City authorities have also appealed to the general public to come forward to improve the cleanliness in the city by keeping their locality clean. The officials monitoring the cleanliness in the city said efforts are being made to lift hundreds of tonnes of garbage from the city as the per day garbage generation from the city is in the hundreds of tonnes.
A few months ago, Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had given in-principle approval for regularising Pourakarmikas who have been directly recruited but not regularised by urban local bodies across Karnataka, but nothing has been done until now. CM had said a committee will be formed to oversee the regularisation process. It will include representatives from Pourakarmikas. However, representatives of Pourakarmikas and others in the state, who are on an indefinite strike for three days, said they will continue to protest till the CM’s promises are handed to them in writing.
As per the classification, of 54,000 Pourakarmikas in urban local bodies across the state, 17,000 have been regularised as government employees, while 26,349 Pourakarmikas have been directly recruited but not made permanent on the government scale. About 16,000 of these direct recruits are working in Bengaluru. The Pourakarmika representatives were called for a meeting with Bommai to discuss the issues related to their well-being and financial concerns.
Door-to-door collection of solid waste has completely stopped with wet waste and dry waste getting accumulated in apartments and other individual houses and establishments. The protesters say that the Rs 2,000 monthly risk allowance announced by the chief minister is not being provided. A special leave salary for 21 days is also not given to the workers. Several facilities like providing workers with gloves, gumboots, changing rooms for women, toilets and drinking water facilities have not been provided for the staff. About 111 pourakarmikas’ jobs were made permanent in October 2022. There are about 800 workers on contract in Mangaluru. Last year, from July 1 to 4 a protest was held and the government asked for three months to look into our demands. With elections round the corner, the workers are hoping that their demands will be met” added Shetty.
Speaking to Team Mangalorean, Prakash Kurup- In-Charge at Antony Waste Handling Cell said, ” There are rumours that the strike may end by 21 march if negotiations between the worker’s leaders and government go well. As of now, we have put nearly 70 trucks with outsourced workers for the clean up of garbage, mainly where heaps of waste are seen. In some areas, even door-to-door collection has started. With these outsourced workers, it has been hard to do the job right since many of them are not familiar with the routes of cleanup.. Even though our company is privately based, and our employees are not connected with the state Pourakarmikas union, they were pressured by the union leaders to support their strike, and therefore they have joined the strike abstaining from work. However, we are trying to sort out with MCC how we can clear all the garbage that has piled up. We are trying to do our best, and we seek peoples’ cooperation during this unexpected situation”.
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