Rahul Gandhi assures safai karmacharis of nation wide contract abolition

DHNS

April 8, 2018

Bengaluru, Apr 8: ICC president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday promised abolition of contractual employment of safai karamcharis all over India if his party came to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul spent nearly 15 minutes interacting with a group of safai karamcharis - pourakarmikas as they are known in Karnataka - during the last day of his Janaarshirvada Yatra in Bengaluru.

"If we get to govern in Delhi, we will learn from Karnataka," Rahul said during the interaction after pourakarmika Oblesh told him that the state government was "probably the only Indian state to have abolished the contract system." Oblesh also told Rahul that Karnataka had increased their wages, which benefited nearly two lakh pourakarmikas.

Last year, Karnataka announced the abolition of the contract system for pourakarmikas, who are mostly Dalits, after the workers took to the streets demanding direct payment of wages. Before pourakarmikas were employed by garbage contractors and it was widely held that the contractors would siphon off the civic workers' wages. Pourakarmikas also alleged that contractors subjected them to bonded labour-like work conditions.

"The person doing the most difficult work should be rewarded the most. The problem in India, the person doing the most difficult work is not rewarded and the person doing the easiest work is rewarded. That's what the Congress party wants to change," Rahul said.

Another pourakarmika Jayamma, while hailing the government for having responded to their demands, pointed out that pourakarmikas were yet to be made permanent employees of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city's municipal corporation. In response, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah informed Rahul that the government had started the process of making pourakarmikas permanent.

Before the interaction, which took place near Mantri Mall in Malleswaram, Rahul garlanded a nearby statue of his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

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Roadblock to Relief: Speaker Khader’s Push to Expand Key NH-66 Stretch from Nanthoor to Talapady

News Network

November 26,2025

Mangaluru, Nov 26: Assembly Speaker and local MLA U.T. Khader has initiated a high-level push to resolve one of Mangaluru’s longest-standing traffic headaches: the narrow, high-density stretch of National Highway-66 between Nanthoor and Talapady.

He announced on Tuesday that a formal proposal has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) seeking approval to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the widening of this crucial corridor.

The plan specifically aims to expand the existing 45-meter road width to a full 60 meters, coupled with the construction of dedicated service roads. Khader highlighted that land for a 60-meter highway was originally acquired during the initial four-laning project, but only 45 meters were developed, leading to a perpetual bottleneck.

"With vehicle density rising sharply, the expansion has become unavoidable," Khader stated, stressing that the upgrade is essential for ensuring smoother traffic flow and improving safety at the city's main entry and exit points.

The stretch between Nanthoor and Talapady is a vital link on the busy Kochi-Panvel coastal highway and connects to major city junctions. The move to utilize the previously acquired land for the full 60-meter width is seen as a necessary measure to catch up with the region's rapid vehicular growth and prevent further traffic gridlocks.

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