What’s in a name? Banks ask the pourakarmikas

City

Confusion over initials and names delays payments of the pourakarmikas.

Bangalore, April 11, 2018: Pourakarmikas working for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) are facing a new problem. Due to the differences in names and initials of the pourakarmikas in their Aadhar cards and voter IDs, the banks are becoming confused and thus the payments are getting late.

Parvathamma, a pourakarmika from Jeevanbhima Nagar said that she hasn’t received her salary since four months. “There is always some confusion within the payment system,” said Parvathamma.

Mohan Gowda, Superintendent of East Zone said, “Most of the pourakarmikas have different initials in Aadhaar card and Voter IDs, due to which the bank isn’t processing the payment,”

He added that they are trying to rectify this error to ensure everyone receives their payments on time.

Nagaraj, Superintendent Engineer of West Zone said the pourakarmikas have received payments for the month of January. “Within a day or two we will clear the February’s payment and the initiation of payment for March has already begun,” said Nagaraj.

Bheerappa, a pourakarmika in Rajarajeshwari Nagar said that the BBMP isn’t clear about its process and keep them in the dark. “We haven’t received payment since past four months, at least we have received January’s salary,” said Bheerappa.

However, on a brighter note, the Biometric systems rolled out last year have ensured that every pourakarmika in the city receives direct payment without the intervention of a middleman.

“The new biometric system is very strict, hence the pourakarmikas will now have a better advantage due to this,” said Narasaram Rao, superintendent of South Zone.

The pourakarmikas were earlier working under a contracting group called, Bharath Vikas Group (BVG).

Prasanna Shastri, a senior officer of BVG said that the pourakarmikas were taken out of the tender after the implementation of the new biometric system.