Toilet cleaners’ festive hopes dashed

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 12

The blank look on Sham Lal’s face projects his helplessness – his inability to provide his family with money this festival season.

His wife and two children live in Patna, Bihar, while he cleans toilets in the Sector 28-C market here. He is a contract employee and, for this, he used to get Rs 10,994 a month. He last received his salary in May. Besides, the salary for last December is still pending.

“With Dasehra and Diwali approaching, my children want to come to Chandigarh. But I have stopped them. My own existence is hand to mouth. How will I take care of them?” Sham Lal says.

He shares his plight with around 350 toilet cleaners, who have not been paid salary for the past few months. All are outsourced employees of private companies.

The Municipal Corporation has hired private companies for the upkeep of toilets in markets and green belts of the city. The MC releases money to the companies which, in turn, pay salaries to the toilet cleaning staff.

But since June, they have been running from pillar to post to get their labour’s worth. They haven’t stopped cleaning toilets in the hope that assurances of their contractors would materialise one day.

In such hard times, toilet cleaners take tough decisions. For instance, Pradeep Kumar, who got married in March, has pawned his wife’s jewellery to pay for the rent (Rs 3,500) and other expenses. “This festival season, I will have to borrow money. I have no other option,” he says.

Others do odd jobs. Sonu Kumar, who cleans toilet in Sector 30, works in shops and, in return, he gets Rs 100 or Rs 200 a day. Another worker, Sunil, says he is under a debt of Rs 40,000.

The Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) on Thursday submitted a memorandum in this connection to Sanjay Kumar Jha, Special Commissioner, MC. On Friday, Ravita Kherwal, Chandigarh convener of the SKA, submitted in the MC office a list of contract workers who have not been paid salary.

Junior Engineer Bhupinder Singh claimed tenders for toilets had been re-allotted, hence, the delay in disbursing salaries. “The process of re-allotting tenders has been completed. The staff will get salary in a week,” he said.

When contacted, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Special Commissioner, MC, did not talk about the re-allotment of tenders. He said, “I have directed Superintendent Engineer (Public Health) Sanjay Arora to ensure that contractors disburse the salaries online soon.”