Awaiting salary, contractual safai karamcharis litter rly station

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 24

The contractual cleanliness staff of the Labour Department is in doldrums at the city railway station.

Owing to not getting their salaries, more than a dozen labourers protested against the contractor and the health officer here on Tuesday. In the morning shift of their duties, cleanliness workers refused to clean the platforms and the railway tracks. They littered garbage on the platforms while agitating against the continuous delay in getting their salaries.

Besides the salary issue, one of the labourers said that they had been harassed everyday by the contractor and the Chief Health Officer. Unnecessary fines were imposed on them and no holidays are provided to them. If the labourers take off due to any health and family issues, immediate deduction is made from their already meagre salary.

Labourers also said that though their account had been opened by the contractors, they had no information about their account numbers and ATM cards. However, every month their salary was deducted for provident fund (PF), but labourers said that no slip was given to them and they had no idea about where their PF was being deposited. Also, sources said that the workers who had resigned, didn’t receive any PF.

Labourers are hired for an amount of 5,500, but every month, they are given only Rs 3,000-4,000. One of the labourers who had come from the cantt railway station said for the past eight months, he had been working overtime, but he was never paid the full amount. Whenever they complained about it, either they were scolded or threatened of removal from work.

The Chief Health Inspector said all labourers were given salaries of more than Rs 6,000 and were paid according to the hours. Moreover, he said this was the first time that the labourers’ salaries were delayed, and probably on the provocation of other private contractors, the workers had protested today. Besides salaries were given to the workers in their respective bank accounts, he added, but workers denied this and claimed that they had no bank accounts.

Questions were also raised on the total number of cleanliness workers working at the railway station. While the officials maintained that presently 87 seven contractual labourers were working in three shifts of eight hours each, sources revealed that for the past two months, only 30-40 workers were on duty, out of whom only 20-25 workers were working. No evidence was given to The Tribune when it inquired about the availability of total 87 workers. Surprisingly, people by the names mentioned in the attendance register were also spotted missing and those who were present, had their names missing from the register. Therefore, there is no confirmation about the total number of labourers receiving salaries.

Meanwhile, Ambala-based contractor Jaiprakash said he was being mentally, physically and financially harassed by the railway staff. He alleged that due to a fraud at the railways mechanical and accounts department, he hadn’t received his payment for the past six months. Consequently, he was facing a financial loss. Also he said that the Railways Department was not setting him free from his liabilities even after complaining many times.