Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (EP)
Mangaluru, Feb 26: Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) made news yet again following the allegations of mental harassment by female staff. A complaint in this regard has been also lodged in the department of women and child welfare.
Staff with an educational background from SSLC to IAS and a salary ranging from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lac per month are employed at the MCC office. There are also those who work on a contract basis and are paid only Rs 12,000 monthly. Most of the employees hold undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The discrimination in the distribution of work between the contract workers earning Rs 12,000 and the arrogance of engineers and full-time officers is reportedly giving rise to issues.
The workers working on a contract basis are allotted more work than they are liable to do. The women who are employed on contractual basis in some of the engineering departments work till 8 pm, which happens to be in direct violation of Supreme Court guidelines.
Contract workers are essential for technical and skilled labour. However, they are being burdened with additional work and allegedly face mental harassment. One such case is of Shashikala DS who has been working on a contract basis for the last 15 years. She lodged a complaint with the department of women and child welfare alleging harassment. A copy of her complaint against corporation superintendent engineer R Ganeshan and assistant executive engineer in the water supply division, Naresh Shenoy has been made available to the media.
It is said that there were complaints against R Ganeshan in the past as well. Two of the female employees who were hired on a contract basis Vidya and Divya quit due to harassment. Engineer Ganeshan has been accused of hurling abuses to subordinates in front of other staff, disrespecting and mocking their educational qualifications.
Shashikala in her complaint stated that Naresh Shenoy and another engineer is supportive of Ganeshan's antics and demanded that justice be served regardless of the post of the accused.