Korpana civic body's sanitation workers allege exploitation, demand justice

Contract sanitation workers employed across 17 wards of Korpana Nagar Panchayat have alleged years of exploitation. The workers say they continue, at risk to their own health, to clean toilets and solid waste and remove dead animals, dogs and cats without adequate protection. They allege that workers from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities are being exploited on a large scale. According to the complaint, the Lad Pagey Committee report has been shelved by the civic body, and workers are not being paid the wages they are entitled to under it. The contractor has not supplied safety kits to workers for several years. The workers say that for the past ten years, since 2016, they themselves do not know who the civic body's contractor actually is, and they have not been issued identity cards as sanitation workers.

Workers have alleged that civic body officials are not paying them according to the approved salary sheet. Although a salary of Rs 24,000 has been sanctioned, workers say they are handed only Rs 10,500 in hand. They allege that this monthly deduction amounts to a fraud of lakhs of rupees over a year. Workers say Provident Fund is regularly deducted from their salaries as sanitation workers, but this amount is not credited to their accounts, alleging a PF scam running into lakhs of rupees. The workers have also alleged that the civic body's sanitation inspector, Shankar Tandra, is involved in this irregularity. They said they do not have the right to withdraw money from their own bank accounts, and that an account was opened in their name at a private bank from which money is withdrawn. Saying they have never personally gone to the bank to withdraw money, the workers have demanded that the bank's CCTV footage be examined.

Workers including Charandas Pandhare, Sudhakar Atram, Digambar Solanke and Anandrao Apte said in their complaint that when they speak up about their rights, they face abuse, and are made to do farm work and ginning work at the homes of the nagar panchayat president and corporators instead of civic body work. They allege major corruption in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and solid waste management over the past ten years, with only two of the civic body's four vehicles being used to transport solid waste. Civic administration officials are accused of turning a blind eye to the entire matter. The complaint demands a serious inquiry into the fund irregularities in solid waste management and the contractor's overall conduct, along with the continuing exploitation of workers, identification of those responsible, justice for the workers, and criminal action against the erring contractor.

In a representation to the urban development administration, Nationalist Congress Party state secretary Abid Ali has demanded that workers should not be threatened with dismissal until the complaint is investigated, and that the civic body's chief officer take note of the matter. Abid Ali has warned of an agitation if a thorough inquiry is not conducted and justice given to the workers.