Other States - Pondicherry   

Groupism in Ministry hits work, says MLA

Special Correspondent

Sanitary workers remained unpaid for six months

PONDICHERRY: The Secretary of the Pondicherry State committee of the all India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, A. Anbalagan, MLA has said that the "lack of trust between the Chief Minister and a section of his cabinet colleagues" had been dislocating work in key departments such as Local Administration Department in Pondicherry.

Addressing newsmen here on Thursday Mr. Anbalagan said that around 600 workers engaged under city cleaning programme by the Local Administration Department through private agencies and also under Urban Basic Services Scheme had not been paid wages for last six months. Mr. Anbalagan said that the sanitary workers were removing the garbage under a special drive since last eight months and workers particularly women were working from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day giving the city a new look.

But wages at Rs. 75 for a day for a male worker and Rs. 65 for woman worker were not paid for last six months causing dislocation in the life of these poor workers. Mr. Anbalagan said that if the wages were not paid in the next ten days he would head an agitation to lay siege at the office of Local Administration Minister A. Elumalai in Assembly premises.

A group of sanitary workers were also present when he was talking to mediapersons. The workers said that they had been facing job insecurity whenever they raised voice to seek wages due for nearly six months.

Files in cold storage

Although the file relating to disbursement of the wages to the workers had been processed and forwarded to higher ups in the department, the files were kept in cold storage and the attitude to cold shoulder the plight of the workers was due to the groupism between Chief Minister and the Local Administration Minister. This was not a healthy trend, he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Make public details of tsunami related expenditure: DMK leader
Board meeting provides guidelines on framing annual plans
Groupism in Ministry hits work, says MLA
Karaikal Struggle Group plans agitation before Parliament
Conservancy workers go on strike
Rs 2.75 crores for road improvement

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu