BWSSB will tap villages to end labour shortage

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has decided to hold job fairs at Malavalli and Kanakapura to recruit labourers and train them with the help of local training institutes to complete its water works. The BWSSB which is facing a severe shortage of labourers has come to this decision after builders’ and contractors’ associations demanded nearly 175 per cent hike in the existing wages of the labourers to supply skilled labourers for the Cauvery IV Stage II Phase project aimed at providing additional source of drinking water to the city.According the sources, Karnataka Contractors’ Association President D Kempanna asked the BWSSB to pay `650 per day for a skilled labourer to get more labourers in each category, which is roughly around 175 per cent hike in the existing wages.It is learnt that BWSSB felt it would lead to manifold escalation in expenditure.Therefore, BWSSB Minister S Suresh Kumar has decided to employ agricultural labourers by holding job fairs and train them before employing them for various works in the project.The Confederation of Real Estates Developers of Association of India (CREDAI) has come forward to set up a training institute to train the labourers if the BWSSB provides them the required land.The CREDAI Vice-President Kiran Kumar said, “The skilled labourers who are mostly from Bengal and Bihar are not coming back to the state as massive development activities are being undertaken in their states too.We will have to face acute shortage of skilled labour if we don’t train our own people.The minister has agreed to give some land and if that materializes, we will construct a big training institute to train the labourers in all fields that are related to construction.” Meanwhile, according to sources, the BWSSB is also exploring the possibility of engaging the services of two city based training institutions - INSTRUCT and ACTE - as suggested by Land Army General Manager Venkatesh as these institutions are already imparting training in the field.Unless the BWSSB and the contractors find a means to get skilled labourers in the immediate future it will be impossible to complete the project as only 3,000 skilled labourers are working for the project that needs at least 4,000 skilled labourers.