Bengaluru: BBMP Worker Ends Life After Being Denied Salary For Six Months

An employee named S Subramani ended his life in Bengaluru after being denied salary for six months, Deccan Herald has reported. The deceased had taken loans from friends, relatives and pawnbrokers to feed his family according to his father-in-law. Subramani was working as a contract employee of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for 18 years after which he was made a permanent employee. He had started off with a salary of Rs 5000 per month. Though his salary was recently raised to Rs 17,700 per month, his wife claims that he was not receiving the amount.

"We are in such a state that we are unable to feed our children and ourselves. Last week, I requested the BBMP officials to release at least one month's salary for our survival but they chased me away asking me to send my husband for work. My husband has worked for months without salary", Subramani's wife said.

Angry Pourakarmikas (employees of BBMP) protested in front of the hospital and demanded the hospital to hand over the deceased employee's body. They were allegedly planning to protest along with the body in front of BBMP office. Malleshwaram police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. The Vyalikaval police have registered a medico-legal case against unnamed BBMP officials.

"Once we find evidence, officials will be booked for abetment to suicide," the police told Deccan Herald.

The Mayor, K Sampath Raj, visited the family and announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and a job to Subramani's wife Kavitha. Subramani is survived by his wife Kavitha and two children.

Recently, a huge scam in the garbage collection system surfaced, with a mafia comprising officials, politicians and contractors, found scamming the entire system. The municipal body had recently introduced biometric identification for pourakarmikas, using which the BBMP could save Rs 200 crore on account of efficient management of manpower. There were supposed to be 20,000 such pourakarmikas, but by the time the biometric system was in place, the numbers began to indicate as many as 30,000. So, this effectively meant that the mafia had created 10,000 ‘ghost pourakarmikas’ and was siphoning off the money at the rate of Rs. 17,000 per pourakarmika per month. The math results in a neat swindle of Rs 1,70,00,000 per month.

In another draconian measure, many contractors across south and north Bengaluru, have impounded the ATM cards issued to the pourakarmikas by banks, after the direct remittance of salaries came into force. Though the area BBMP engineers know about the matter, they are in no way keen on taking action due to political pressure. After the biometric system came in to force, many areas do not have labour contractors, and exploitative residual forces of the contractor system still remain in the form of the garbage clearance machinery. The BBMP officials, MLAs and corporators are reportedly fully aware about the poaching of ATM cards, but they turn a blind eye to the matter, leading to the suspicion that they are part of the problem.

This is one of the reasons pourakarmikas feel cheated by the system, and owing to severe exploitation, are forced into extreme decisions such as suicides.