MUMBAI, December 18: Over 25,000 employees of the conservancy department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will demonstrate on Saturday protesting the administration's oral orders on changes in service conditions.Municipal Mazdoor Union working president Sharad Rao informed that the employees would gather outside their respective ward offices after duty hours.The union leader disclosed that before introducing any change in the service conditions, it is obligatory on the part of the civic administration to issue a notice to the court under the Industrial Dispute Act. Rao charged that the officers are issuing oral orders to escape breach of court orders. ``The administration is purposely violating all these provisions and taking the law in their own hands.''Rao criticised the administration's decision to involve doctors, engineers and other employees of the corporation in the cleanliness drive, adding that this has affected the BMC's regular work. He said that the union will seek the court's intervention in this matter.Rao alleged that the corporation had spent Rs 47 crore since January this year without making any budgetary provision for the cleanliness drive. He further informed that the administration had not withdrawn the contract system in the conservancy department even after several assurances.Regarding the financial crunch the administration is facing, he said that this was a systematic effort of the administration to malign their image of the workers. He added that in fact the revenue of the corporation had increased including the octroi collection. Compared to the collections last year, this year it had gone up by Rs 100 crore in the last eight months.He explained that this increase was in spite of the adverse conditions as the construction activity had come to a stand-still.
