Pourakarmikas call off strike after BBMP assurance

The members who withdrew from their call for indefinite strike on Tuesday said that Raipura, who is also secretary to the CM, assured to approve their demands within two days

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Members of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), which included pourakarmikas on Tuesday, called off their protest in the city after an assurance to look into their demands was made by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) special commissioner here.

The workers had embarked on an indefinite strike seeking regularisation of jobs for pourakarmikas from the state government as per a written promise by the chief minister last year. The members had alleged that the BBMP officials had favoured some people and, in some cases, taken bribes of Rs 2-3 lakh, and included names of many from one family, and new recruits, while ignoring the older employees.

A protest was staged in front of the BBMP office on Monday where the union members alleged that the state government and the BBMP had failed to take up a clear stand regarding the recruitment of the ignored pourakarmikas who have been working for years.

The members who withdrew from their call for indefinite strike on Tuesday said that Raipura, who is also secretary to the CM, had addressed them and assured to approve their demands within two days while the issuance of notification will take about two weeks.

The workers had alleged that though there were 16,000 pourakarmikas working in the BBMP, a notification was issued only with regard to 3,673 workers and “injustice was done to the remaining 12,500 pourakarmikas”. Ashok Gowda, district secretary for All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), said that the provisional list prepared by the BBMP has done injustice to many pourakarmikas.

"BBMP officials had prepared the list arbitrarily and our protest was against this," he said during the protest on Tuesday. General Secretary of the Union, Annappa, added that a lot of workers have attempted suicide due to the injustice done to them.