MUMBAI, January 12: The state government will shortly be setting up an independent Safai Karmachari Welfare Board on the lines of the Mathadi Kamgar Board and a Safai Karmachari Finance Development Corporation to ensure that around 35 lakh safai karmacharis across the state are paid their due wages and working conditions improved.The details of the development boards were sorted out at a meeting on Monday, said Govindbhai Parmar, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Congress. The meeting was the result of a sustained agitation by the union that culminated with nearly 50,000 workers laying seige on the assembly while the session was on at Nagpur on December 23 last year. Social Welfare minister Babanrao Gholap had addressed the meeting and accepted two of their main demands.The formation of the Safai Karmachari Welfare Board will ensure that the sweepers employed in the various cooperative societies will be recruited through the board. The employer, in this case, will have to deposit a certainamount with the welfare board towards the wages of the worker. The rest of the salary will be paid by the government. The safai karmacharis will be given their due bonuses and pensions through the board, said Parmar.Complaints against the working of the workers can also be made to the board, he added. This apart, the Safai Karmachari Arthik Vikas Mahamandal will be set up to provide soft loans to those workers who want to set up some small businesses on their own. ``At present, since they are not included in the SC/ST categories, their applications are not accepted by the welfare boards like the Mahatma Phule Board for Backward Classes,'' explained Parmar.While these are some of the demands made by the union, the government has not agreed to one major demand that the nagar palikas of the state be given a 100 per cent aid for paying the salaries to the safai karmacharis. According to Parmar, many sweepers in small municipal corporations like Malakapur at Akola have not been given wages for the past eightto 10 months because the corporations do not have the money.``We suggested that the state give these corporations a 100 per cent aid and then collect money from the areas through some tax,'' Parmar disclosed.
