Release salaries of sanitation workers in a month, officials told

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 2

After conducting a meeting with senior officials in Ludhiana, Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Vijay Sampla has given instructions to the district administration to finalise all verifications and promptly disburse pending salaries of sewer men and safai karamcharis of the Municipal Corporation (MC), Ludhiana, by July 2, otherwise officials will be summoned for hearing at New Delhi with action-taken report.

The corporation had earlier regularised 3,542 contractual employees, which included 2,428 sanitation workers and 1,114 sewer men. However, the salaries of a significant number of these employees have not been disbursed. As a result of the salary delays, the workers are encountering financial hardships and struggling to meet their daily needs. The workers expressed these concerns before the Chairman of the NCSC on Friday.

Expressing concern for hardships faced by the sewer men and safai karamcharis, who have been deprived of their salaries for a few months, Sampla visited Ludhiana on Friday to engage in discussions with the district administration and civic body officials, aiming to resolve the matter.

Initially, Sampla interacted with the workers to understand their grievances. Subsequently, he convened a meeting with high-ranking officials from the administration and the MC. The attendees included Ludhiana DC Surabhi Malik, Commissioner of Police Mandeep Singh Sidhu, MC Commissioner Shena Aggarwal, and ADC Rahul Chaba.

Sampla said: “The NCSC recently received a complaint from Vicky Sahota, a member of the ‘Sewerman Safai Karamchari Sangharsh Committee,’ stating that despite the employees being regularised, the civic body has failed to remunerate them. The administration officials explained that though the employees were issued appointment letters, their joining process has not been completed yet due to pending police verifications and other formalities.”

“The CP ensured that the city police will complete the police verification of the employees within a week whereas the Deputy Commissioner also told the NCSC that other formalities will also be done in a week’s time to ensure speedy release of pending salaries of the MC employees,” Sampla said.

Furthermore, Sampla emphasised that the Ludhiana administration has been directed to finalise the pending formalities and disburse the salaries by July 2. He also conveyed that if the required actions are not completed by the deadline, the officials will be summoned for a meeting in New Delhi on July 4, during which they will have to present the action-taken report.

‘Sexual misconduct’ victim of minister worried about his personal safety: Sampla

In response to a media query related to the “sexual misconduct” complaint that was filed by a man against a cabinet minister of Punjab, NCSC Chairman Vijay Sampla said today that the complainant, who accused the minister of sexual misconduct, is apprehensive about coming to Punjab due to concerns for his personal safety. The alleged sexual misconduct complaint was earlier filed against Cabinet Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak.

Sampla said the man met him a week ago. The complainant said the Punjab Police should either record his statement via videoconferencing or come to Delhi to record the statement. He said they had written to the Punjab Police in this regard.