MMC Chairperson Lyndon Pereira and his deputy Deepali Sawal listen to sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar as daily wage workers take their seat in the Municipal hall on Saturday. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO: It was a parade of an unprecedented nature. Margao Municipal Chairperson Lyndon Pereira and his deputy Deepali Sawal sat in the Municipal hall, as various sections, including sanitation, sweepers, road section literally paraded their respective daily wage and contract workers on Saturday noon.
Reason: The chairperson and his deputy undertook the exercise to verify whether the daily wage workers draw their wages without putting in daily work. Acting on a resolution adopted by the civic body on allegations that unscrupulous daily wage workers remain absent from work, but take away the wage, the duo had an interaction with the supervisors heading these sections and impress upon them that no worker should get their wage without putting in work.
Making the supervisors accountable for maintaining strict attendance of the daily workers, pegged over 2000, the chairperson warned that supervisors found erring in maintaining attendance will face memos from office.
The chairperson and the vice-chairperson also had an interaction with Sanitary Inspectors Viraj Arabekar to apprise themselves with the number of daily wage workers employed in the sanitary section. Apart from the daily wage workers, the sanitary inspector informed that a number of contract workers are also employed by the civic body, some of them working in the office.
Briefing the media, the MMC chairperson said the supervisors and the workers have been sent a clear message that no one would get their wages or salaries without putting in work. “This parade was held following complaints from councillors and others that some of the daily wage workers only sign the muster roll, but do not work. I wanted to impress upon the workers and the supervisors that no would get the wages without work. This is a clear signal I have sent to the workers”, Lyndon said.
In fact, the municipal chairperson said he would conduct surprise checks on the field to see if workers report to work or not, from Monday. “I have received the list of the daily wage workers working in these sections. From Monday onwards, I will conduct surprise checks”, he added.
To another question, he pointed out that most of the daily wage workers engaged in door-to-door waste collection are under the contractors, adding that the municipality has engaged daily wage workers only in the two wards of 15 & 16.
