BENGALURU: Members of the Karnataka State Commission for Safai Karmacharis visited the Bangalore University on Thursday and verified documents related to safai karmacharis working on the campus.
Based on information that about 96 safai karmacharis, including manual scavengers, were working at Jnana Bharathi campus on contract basis, the commission visited the campus and took the authorities to task.
However, university officials told them that the said workers were contract workers hired through an agency.
“As they are outsourced workers, we have no information about their work load and salaries. We will discuss with their agency about it,” said in-charge Vice-Chancellor Prof Muniraju.
According to information with the commission, instead of the sanctioned 350 workers, BU had hired only 96 people.
The workers are being paid `5,000 to `6,000 per month instead of `14,000, the members said.
“Instead of using technology for cleaning water tanks and overhead tanks at the university, they are using manual scavengers. We have asked them to set things right and submit a report,” said a commission member.
BU registrar, administration, Prof K N Ningegowda told Express, “There are no manual scavengers in our university. Even for cleaning septic tanks, we take the help of BWSSB. During their visit today, the commission asked us to provide all benefits to the workers and we will have a meeting with the agency to ensure the workers get them.