In a bid to check the exploitation of the ‘Safai Sewaks’ and sewerage men at the hands of private contractors, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal has asked the state Chief Secretary to explore the possibility of doing away with the system of engaging the services of these employees through outsourcing.Presiding over a meeting with a delegation of ‘Safai Sewaks’ from Moga, who called on the Chief Minister at his residence on Wednesday evening, the Chief Minister expressed concern over the paltry salary paid to the ‘Safai Sewaks’ by the contractors. He said that with the ever increasing inflation it was too difficult for anybody to survive on the menial salaries given by the private contractors to the ‘Safai Sewaks’. Mr. Badal said that the ‘Safai Sewaks’ and sewerage men render a valuable service to the society while performing an extremely hard duty of arduous nature adding that due attention needs to be paid for safeguarding their interests from these private contractors.
The Chief Minister asked the state Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal to meticulously study the entire system of outsourcing and suggest ways and means so that the ‘Safai Sewaks’ and Sewerage men could be duly employed in the Municipal Corporations and Municipal Committees across the state. He asked the Chief Secretary to suggest a mechanism that could be evolved to employ the ‘Safai Sewaks’ and sewerage men without any sort of exploitation adding that the viability of providing direct employment to these ‘Safai Sewaks’ and Sewerage men on contract basis through the civic bodies across the state, as per their requirement, should also be examined. Mr. Badal impressed upon the Chief Secretary that the mechanism so evolved in consultation with other departments which were hiring the services of the employees through outsourcing, should be uniformly replicated in all such departments to do away with the system of outsourcing.
Assuring fulsome support and cooperation to the delegation, the Chief Minister said that the state government was fully sensitized towards all their genuine demands and was working hard for formulating a strategy to find some solution for them. Mr. Badal also directed the Chief Parliamentary Secretary Local Government to take up the issue separately with the Local Government Minister for the release of their salary at the earliest.Prominent amongst those who attended the meeting included Cabinet Minister Jathedar Tota Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mr. Som Parkash, Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Secretary Local Government Mr. Ashok Gupta, Director Local Government Mr. Priyank Bharti and Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Mr. Ajoy Sharma.