Mysuru: Deputy Commissioner (DC) D. Randeep has said that the District Administration will recommend  the State Safai Karmacharis Commission to conduct a re-survey of Safai Karmacharis in the district.

Chairing a progress review meeting of Pourakarmikas at his office here yesterday, Randeep said that the re-survey has been recommended as the members of the District-level Safai Karmacharis Monitoring Committee demanded it.

Earlier, the Committee Member C.R. Rachaiah said that several manhole scavengers were excluded from the 2003-04 Government ordered survey and this had resulted in the scavengers being deprived of many Government benefits.

Following the ban on manual scavenging in 2005, manual scavengers were henceforth came to be called as Safai Karmacharis and in this backdrop, a re-survey was needed to render justice to non-inclusive Pourakarmikas, he said.

Continuing, Rachaiah alleged that Pourakarmika children studying in classes from first to tenth standard were deprived of student scholarship provided by the Centre, because of the confusion that prevails over the usage of the term scavenger.

Attributing this confusion to the mention of manual scavenging in Col.No.2 of the application form published in the Social Welfare Department’s online website, he demanded immediate action for clearing this confusion.

Some other members, alleging that Pourakarmikas were not distributed uniforms and gloves, demanded distribution of gloves and other safety wears for Pourakarmikas.

MCC Additional Commissioner Raju said that Pourakarmika contractors (contract Pourakarmika has been abolished and regularisation process in underway) have been asked to provide safety gears to all contract Pourakarmikas without fail.

Social Welfare Department Joint Director B.S. Prabha, Backward Classes Welfare Department District Officer G.S. Somashekar Jigani, Assistant Labour Commissioner A.C. Thammanna, Committee Members M.V. Venkatesh, Parashuram and others were present.