The Hindu       03.06.2017 

BBMP takes cooperatives route to loosen stranglehold of contractors

Civic body also hopes to eliminate another problem: Inflating the number of pourakarmikas

In an attempt to eliminate the problem of contractor mafia and the
duplication of pourkarmikas’ names, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP) is experimenting with forming cooperatives of solid waste
management (SWM) workers at the ward levels and contracting work to them
instead of contractors.

The pilot project is set to take off in
15 wards in Byatarayanapura and Sarvagna Nagar, the neighbouring
Assembly constituencies of north and east Bengaluru represented by
Ministers Krishna Byre Gowda and K.J. George respectively. Sarfaraz
Khan, Joint Commissioner, SWM, BBMP, said that the bylaws for the
societies, and drafts of MoUs between the civic body and the proposed
societies were ready. Detailed proposals from five wards of Sarvagna
Nagar were ready and proposals from other wards would be ready in a
week, he added.

These co-operatives called ‘BBMP Link Workers
Cooperative Society’ will have pourakarmikas – sweepers and garbage
collectors presently working under contractors in the particular ward –
as the only members. While the president and other office bearers will
be elected from among the pourakarmikas, the BBMP will appoint an
assistant executive engineer rank official as the CEO of each society.
BBMP will henceforth pay their salaries to the society which will in
turn disburse the same to the members, according to the bylaws, a copy
of which is available with
The Hindu
.

The bylaws also provide for a board of management with a total
of 16 members. Three of these, a BBMP chief engineer, a master trainer
in waste management and a representative from Residents’ Welfare
Association, will be invited. However, they will have no voting rights
or profit shares. The board will have a term of five years. The office,
furniture and operational costs will be borne by BBMP. The society will
also have an advisory board to be headed by the ward councillor and the
ward committee.

N.S. Ramakanth, SWM Expert Committee, BBMP, said
the cooperative society was one of the best models to eliminate the
contractor mafia in garbage management. “Today, the entire city is at
the mercy of the contractors. They have even boycotted the new garbage
tenders and forced the BBMP to pay them arbitrarily. The cooperative
model will eliminate them,” he said, and added that the scheme will
empower pourakarmikas, who are expected to face resistance from the
councillors.

However, the pourakarmika unions are cautious. Vinay
Sreenivasa, BBMP Contract Pourakarmika Union, said their demand for
regularisation of all contract pourakarmikas that even the State cabinet
decided on would not be diluted. “In the cooperative societies, BBMP
will pay to the society instead of directly to the pourakarmikas. In the
event of any issues within the society, BBMP may shirk responsibility,”
he said, and added that the civic body should hold wide-ranging
consultations with all the pourakarmika unions over the issue.