The Bombay High Court today asked Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to explain its policy on recruitment of sweepers, and state whether it was following the government’s decision to give preference to the children of deceased workers.
Hearing a petition filed by 32 persons, who claim to be children of sweepers, the Bombay High Court division bench of Justices Sharad Bobade and Mridula Bhatkar asked the state to file an affidavit within three weeks.
The petitioners alleged that the state government had formed a committee in 1975 to look into the health hazards faced by the sweepers. The committee had said that if a worker died prematurely due to health problems suffered due to his/her job, their children should be given jobs on becoming major. According to the petitioners, between 1983 to 2004, BMC recruited 400 sweepers in ignorance of the policy to give preference to the children of the dead workers. The Bombay High court has sought to know why the policy was not complied with.
