Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (HB)

With Inputs from Media Release

Mangaluru, Feb 1: Dakshina Kannada district administration should regularize the wages of Government daily wage workers serving in the revenue department as per the Supreme Court order, demanded Human Rights Protection Foundation President Dr Ravindranath Shanbagh.

Addressing a press meet at Vaikunta Baliga College of Law, Kunjibettu on January 31, he said there is a clear order from Supreme Court that the remuneration of the government daily wage workers must be regularised on completion of continuous 10 years of service.

However, nine daily wage workers from Dakshina Kannada are struggling to become regularised workers as per the Supreme Court order issued in 2006. In spite of submitting all these documents to be used as precedent, the district administration of Dakshina Kannada was not ‘convinced’, he said.

Nine people namely Gulabi, Sumati Bai, Vijaya Kumari, Satya Shankari, Yogini, Anita, Ranjani and Netrakshi Alva have served for three decades and are on the verge of retirement. But still they are working for the same amount of wage.

Out of them, Mr Niranjan Acharya of Belthangady Taluk Office has already retired.

The district administration washed its hands of the matter yet again by directing the revenue department to take “suitable action”. When HRPF had approached the then DK Deputy Commissioner Dr Jagadish, the successor of DC Ibrahim, he showed least interest in solving the problems.

There are records of 248 such temporary workers who have fulfilled the said four conditions and were regularized by the government of Karnataka in the past 12 years. This includes 184 workers from the Commercial Tax department, 28 from the Youth Empowerment Department, 4 from the Zilla Panchayath, 3 from the forest department and 16 from the health department. Later, they were retained as permanent workers on the basis of Court order. If 248 workers could get regularized based on this circular, what wrong have these nine persons from the Dakshina Kannada district administration done to not be permitted to avail the same benefit? he questioned.

“In spite of being eligible, these nine workers are deprived of their due salary. The foundation has decided to move to the court in this matter until these workers get the deserved arrears in salary along with their retirement benefits. In case there are others who are in need of justice in this matter, they may approach the organization,” he said.