GULBARGA: Former Minister and senior Janata Dal (Secular) leader S.K. Kanta on Thursday demanded the immediate reinstatement of 500-and-odd contract labourers working in the Gulbarga City Corporation for the past 12 years and withdrawal of a new system of handing over cleaning and sanitary works to contractors on the "task force" basis, which, he said, would result in the exploitation of labour and denial of minimum wages.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Kanta, who spearheaded an agitation of contract labourers in 2004 and forced the Government to pay higher wages to all contract labourers involved in cleaning and sanitary works, said the State Government, which should be a model employer, was denying the rights of workers employed by it in different departments and corporations in the State.

Mr. Kanta threatened to launch an agitation and said the decision of the Government to abolish the contract labour system and introduce a similar system with a different nomenclature was meant to deny the genuine demands of over 17,000 contract labourers working in different corporations in the State. Mr. Kanta said the system of awarding cleaning operations on contract basis by corporations had many protective clauses and also mentioned the number of workers to be involved in different localities. However, the new system did not have any specification about the number of employees to be deployed for cleaning work or the minimum wages to be paid to them. This would give freedom to contractors to exploit the workers and evade their obligations, including the payment of provident fund and other benefits.

Illegal

He said the decision of the Gulbarga City Corporation to terminate the contract system was illegal as a case pertaining to the regularisation of services and non-payment of PF dues by the contractors was pending in the Deputy Labour Commissioner's office and the Provident Fund office. According to Section 33 of the Industrial Disputes Act, the employer had no right to terminate the services of employee when a case filed by him was still pending adjudication.

Mr. Kanta blamed Commissioner of the corporation S.P. Mudhol for violating all norms while finalising tenders. Only four applications had been received for four works and they were approved without verifying whether the contractor had been blacklisted or not, he said.

He pointed out that Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Health Nirmaladevi had written to the Commissioner pointing out several irregularities in awarding the work. She had accused the Commissioner of indulging in irregularities, he added.

Mr. Kanta said the Lokayukta should take up suo motu investigation into the irregularities in the Gulbarga City Corporation.

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