Pay up!

Say volunteers to BMC, which has failed to remunerate them for the work that they did for the civic body during the six-day long polio drive over a month ago

It appears that the BMC will have a tough time when they start approaching people to volunteer for their next polio drive, which is scheduled for May 22. The civic body has evoked the wrath of volunteers who work regularly for polio drives conducted by it, as it has failed to pay them for services rendered on a drive that was held on April 3. More than 15,000 volunteers, along with civic health officers, who act as supervisors during the drive, have not been paid for the six-day long drive that started on the third of last month.



Custom demands that the civic body pay the volunteers just after completion of the drive. In fact it had received a sanction of Rs 1,15,58,980 from the state government to conduct the polio drive. As part of the campaign, BMC had stationed around 5,000 odd polio booths across the city, as well as transit booths at railway stations and bus-stands.

When MiD DAY contacted Dr G T Ambe, executive health officer at BMC, he said, "We conduct around seven to eight polio drives annually. The funds for the polio drive are usually sanctioned before the drive is undertaken, but owing to census duty, we had to postpone our polio drives. The April 3 drive was originally scheduled for March. Since a new financial year had started by April 3, we could not pay them money which had been sanctioned in the last financial year."

However, budgetary logistics is possibly not the only factor responsible for the pending payments. A senior medical officer with BMC said, "The census figures which were released recently have shown population distribution which is at odds with that calculated by the BMC. Due to the BMC's miscalculation, polio booths have not been distributed well enough to meet the population demands. The booths will now have to be redistributed across the city in keeping with these new findings. This has irked the higher ups, forcing them to hold the sanctioned amount."

The state government offers Rs 75 daily to each volunteer. This means that for six days of volunteer work, each worker is entitled to a total of Rs 450. Apart from this amount, a team of two volunteers get Rs 150 every day as travelling allowance. Each medical officer which supervises the campaign work is entitled to Rs 125 a day.

"Usually, the BMC pays us just after the completion of the drive. But it has been over a month since the last drive was completed, and we are yet to get paid. It is a small amount for each individual, but a sum total of lakhs which the BMC owes the collective body of volunteers," said an aggravated volunteer.u00a0

Dr V M Kulkarni, in-charge of polio immunisation, state health services, said, "In all other districts, the amount has been sanctioned. The payment has also been made to the volunteers. The entire amount has already been given to the corporation by the state government. I do not know why they haven't paid the volunteers in Mumbai."

The Other Side
Assistant Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar, said, "There were some budgetary issues which will be sorted out soon." Ambe said, "The problem will be resolved within two weeks. By then we will get a budgetary sanction for the present financial year, and will utilise the newly sanctioned amount to pay the employees what is due to them for their services offered."

5,000 The number of polio booths the BMC had stationed across the city, as well as transit booths at railway stations and bus stands

Rs 1,15,58,980 The amount of sanction the BMC received from the state government to conduct the polio drive