Mysuru: Garbage from your house and your surrounding areas may not be cleared as over 40,000 contracted civic workers (Pourakarmikas) from all over the State are planning to go on an indefinite strike from June 12 demanding regularisation of their services.

The proposed strike is likely to affect 12 city corporations including Mysuru and 260 city and municipalities. In Mysuru, there are over 1,648 contract Pourakarmikas and of them 230 work exclusively in underground drainages.

Safai Karmachari Hitharakshana Samiti President M.V. Venkatesh alleged Chief Minister Siddharamaiah has not addressed the problems of Pourakarmikas as promised by him. Accusing the Chief Minister of using Pourakarmikas merely as vote banks, Venkatesh reiterated that Pourakarmikas will not budge from their proposed protest from June 12.

“The CM has been holding huge rallies to showcase the welfare programmes launched by his government in the last four years and has even claimed to have fulfilled 155 out 165 promises made in the Congress election manifesto. But the long-pending demands of Pourakarmikas have not yet been fulfilled,” he said.

According to Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) authorities, apart from contract Pourakarmikas, there are over 574 permanent Pourakarmikas. “We don’t expect the strike to paralyse the garbage clearing system as we can manage with permanent Pourakarmikas,” MCC Senior Health Officer Dr. Ramachandra told Star of Mysore.

The MCC pays a monthly salary of Rs. 16,618 for contract Pourakarmikas and provides them free treatment (reimbursement facility) in all multi-speciality hospitals under the 24.10 point programme. If the health condition of the contract Pourakarmika is serious, an advance of Rs. 1 lakh will be paid and free laptops and books are provided to their children who are pursuing technical and LLB courses, Dr. Ramachandra said.