File image of a gathering of Greater Bengaluru Authority corporation employees demanding justice
Bengaluru: Officers and employees of the five corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) have been asked to take mass leave and attend a preparatory meeting at Sir Puttanna Chetty Town Hall on Monday, November 16, as their welfare association gears up to press a 29-point list of service-related demands.
The Greater Bengaluru Authority – Corporations Officers and Employees Welfare Association (Regd.) has called the open meeting from 10 am to 5 pm, according to a notice signed by its president, A. Amrut Raj. The notice says the meeting is being held in view of the association’s call for a strike over the demands, and asks all corporation officers and employees to apply for mass leave and attend without fail.
In a memorandum listing the demands, the association said many officers and employees working in the five corporations are being denied service facilities that they are entitled to, and asked the government and the GBA to address them. It said employees should be ready to take up an agitation by going on mass leave if the demands are not resolved.
The first demand is for fresh cadre and recruitment rules for the GBA Commissioner’s administrative branch, so that the staff and officers it needs can be appointed or deputed quickly. The association has also asked that the Chief Commissioner of the GBA corporations be given the appointing and disciplinary authority over Group A officers, including promotions, transfers and the common seniority list, and the appointing authority for the Group A, B, C and D cadres, drawing a parallel with the powers under the 1976 cadre and recruitment rules.
Vacancies are a major plank. The memorandum says more than 4,000 posts across cadres are vacant in the corporations and wants them filled to ease the pressure on serving staff. It says the cadre and recruitment rules sanction about 7,594 posts, of which about 3,794 are filled and about 3,800 posts in Groups A, B, C and D are vacant, and asks for the vacancies to be filled without delay.
On engineers, the association cited a government order (UDD 235 BBS 2025) of September 1, 2025, and said vacant posts include 124 junior engineers, 373 assistant engineers, 245 assistant executive engineers and 45 executive engineers, besides eight posts at the senior engineering levels. It wants them filled to speed up development work, and has asked that posts from assistant executive engineer up to chief engineer that are now filled on deputation be cancelled and treated as promotion posts for eligible engineers. It has also asked for engineers from the corporations to be posted to the town planning wing, and for the tenure of deputation staff to be limited to two years.
For the revenue wing, the association has sought promotions to fill vacant posts of deputy commissioners, revenue officers and deputy revenue officers, citing the needs of the revenue department and the coming Greater Bengaluru elections, and promotions on seniority to vacant Group B and C posts such as assistant revenue officers, revenue inspectors and revenue collectors. It has asked that the promotion ratios for revenue inspectors be revised, and that the suspension of revenue officers and assistant revenue officers, which it called unlawful, and the charge sheets issued for departmental inquiries be withdrawn.
Other cadre demands include posts of legal officer for the GBA and each corporation, with extra deputy legal officer posts for the legal cells; fresh posts of health officers and chief health supervisors; promotion of horticulture inspectors and assistant horticulture inspectors to horticulture officer posts in a 50:50 ratio; and sanction of more audit officer posts in the accounts wing, with promotions to be filled in a 75:25 ratio between promotees and deputation, as only five such posts are now sanctioned.
For clerical staff, the association has proposed larger sanctioned strengths under the new rules, to replace those in the 2020 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike rules: 443 manager posts against 108, 937 first-grade clerk posts against 278 and 923 second-grade clerk posts against 631. It wants manager posts filled entirely by promotion from first-grade clerks, and first-grade and second-grade clerk posts filled half by direct recruitment and half by promotion. It has also asked for direct recruitment to vacant Group D posts and driver posts, for compassionate-ground appointments to be allowed by the Chief Commissioner of the corporations, and for regularisation of tailoring teachers as directed by the High Court.
On pay and welfare, the memorandum asks for equal pay for equal work for teachers, link workers, computer operators and outsourced junior health inspectors. It seeks cashless health treatment for officers, employees and their family members, saying some hospitals are turning them away and reimbursement is delayed, and asks that those who excel be honoured on Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Day. It also asks for repair of old toilets in corporation offices and a proper water supply and upkeep for them.
The notice and memorandum were issued by the association’s office-bearers. They did not say what the corporations or the state government’s response has been to the demands.
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