Vashi: Mumbai Congress which has opposed the rate proposal of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) for garbage collection and transportation has questioned guardian minister Ganesh Naik’s assurance of fighting for contract workers them till Supreme Court.
“Ganesh Naik is a minister in the state government and if he wants he can get the proposal for equal pay for equal work cleared at the state level, but he is well aware that it cannot happen because there are several flaws in it,” said an office-bearer from city Congress.
The office bearer further said, “Time has come for the guardian minister to decide on what is more important – the 12 lakh people of Navi Mumbai who are paying taxes or 550 contract workers whom the contractor normally brings from adjoining areas of Mumbai and Thane.”
The leader said, “NMMC can absorb workers in its services and give them the salary they want; what is the need to give the salary through contractor’s bill. This is being done to extract commission from the contractor.”
“Navi Mumbai Congress has always taken a stand for workers and we are not against salary cut, but the ruling party raises the matter of workers’ salary every time and misleads people. There are several other heads where expenses can be cut down like the number of vehicles to be purchased or giving contracts on ward basis. We have raised this matter,” said the Congress leader.
Naik, during the janata darbar on Monday, had assured contract workers that he would take up their cause and get them ‘equal pay for equal work’, which is the policy adopted by the civic body. Naik had said that if need be he will not hesitate to approach the supreme court.
Several workers from M/S Antony Waste Handling, whose contract with NMMC was terminated by the civic body had approached guardian minister and requested him to get them jobs.
The urban development department had, after conducting inquiry, asked NMMC to scale down the rate proposal from Rs1,503 per metric tonne to Rs1,233 per metric tonne.
However, this proposal was shot down by the general body which decided to go ahead with the earlier proposal.
DNA/ Rahul M Tawade
