Rahul Gandhi interacts with pourakarmikas in Bengaluru

It was a day Srinivas, a pourakarmika with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and his wife Sunitha, will remember for a long time. It was the day Congress president Rahul Gandhi came to their one-room house and had a bit of upma.

“We were standing outside our home, ready to go to church. When Rahul Gandhi came, we just invited him inside. To our surprise, he immediately entered our home. I asked him to have breakfast and he readily agreed. He even took a second helping of the upma,” gushed Ms. Sunitha, a homemaker.

Still in a flutter, she added that Chief Msinister Siddaramaiah had been waiting outside their home. Later, a sample of the upma was taken by the police for testing.

Mr. Gandhi was in the city on Sunday for a slew of programmes. He began his day by interacting with the BBMP pourakarmikas at Jakkarayanakere, near Sheshadripuram. “I wanted to come and understand your difficulties,” he said.

Around 150 pourakarmikas from the BBMP’s West zone had gathered at the venue, inside the slum, along with several local Congress leaders. The lanes inside the slum were cordoned off and heavy bandobast was in place.

Jayamma and Indirani, both pourakarmikas, hailed the Congress government for extending benefits, including increase in monthly salaries, direct disbursement of salaries to their bank accounts, housing schemes, midday meals and foreign study tours, to them. To this, Mr. Gandhi quipped: “So, the government has fulfilled its ‘Nudidante Nade’ promise.”

“The contract system has been abolished after our struggle. We only want the services of the contract pourakarmikas to be regularised,” they said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah listed out the other benefits extended to pourakarmikas by the government. He said Karnataka was the only state to enhance the salaries from ₹7,800 a month to nearly ₹18,000, including ESI and PF benefits. “We have also established a Pourakarmika Development Board and sanctioned ₹100 crore for the same,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi asked the pourakarmikas if the Indira Canteens were helping them. “When we come to power in Delhi, we will learn from Karnataka. The persons doing the most difficult work should be rewarded the most. The problem in India, unfortunately, is that the person doing the easiest work is rewarded. We will reverse that when we come to power,” he said. Later, he took pictures with the pourakarmikas.

Lakshmi, a pourakarmika, told The Hindu earlier that all her colleagues who had gathered there were given new green shirts with BBMP emblazoned at the back, green vests with reflective strips, gloves and masks. Though mandated, the pourkarmikas often work without any safety gear. Manjula, another pourakarmika, said that their earlier uniform — a shirt — had become old and torn. “Only some have received gloves and rubber boots. We have to ask the local leaders to give it to us too,” she said.

The residents of the area had to stay indoors for a large part of the morning as the police, apart from barricading the bylanes, had asked the residents to not step out. “Over the past week, the area was cleaned like never before. This morning, the houses were all inspected by the police,” said a resident.