The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Conservancy workers lay siege to Ripon Buildings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Conservancy workers lay siege to Ripon Buildings

Staff Reporter

Over 4,000 workers yet to be regularised, says union

FEELING LEFT OUT: Conservancy workers protest at Ripon Buildings on Monday demanding regularisation of their jobs. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI: Hundreds of conservancy workers of Chennai Corporation laid siege to Ripon Buildings on Monday demanding regularisation of jobs. For more than an hour in the evening, police were forced to shut all the gates of the civic headquarters to prevent the agitated workers from taking to the streets.

The Madras Corporation Red Flag Union that organised the protest noted that conservancy workers had been left out of a government order passed recently regularising jobs in the civic agency.

The union's general secretary, S. Purushotaman, said the order had regularised the jobs of 912 Corporation employees, including road workers and health workers. But the jobs of 4,111conservancy workers, including 1,688 workers on consolidated pay and 1,660 on daily wages, were left out. "The jobs of conservancy workers in all other municipalities have been regularised following the Chief Minister's orders earlier this month. So why this treatment for conservancy workers of Chennai," he asked.

The agitating workers were gathering force since Noon and were seated on the Ripon Buildings lawns raising slogans. Suddenly around 3 p.m., when the number of workers had swollen considerably, the protesters rushed towards the main building. With things threatening to go out of hand, the security personnel closed the inner gate in the main building.

The Corporation Commissioner M.P.Vijayakumar, who returned from a meeting, called for representatives of the workers to present their case. Perambur MLA K. Mahendran joined Madras Red Flag Union members and CPM councillor Devi in appealing to the officials to regularise the jobs.

Official response

Official sources clarified that at least the case of a section of the protesters — 1,688 workers on consolidated pay since 1999 — had been taken up. A government order in May 1999 had asked the civic agency to regularise the jobs of the workers after three years. The civic agency, through a resolution passed in the council, decided to hike the salary of workers, and move them to time scale later. "The workers on consolidated pay will any way enter the permanent job rolls next year," an

official said.

A question mark however still hangs over fate of 1,660 conservancy workers that Chennai Corporation recruited as daily wagers since 1999 despite orders to stop recruitments. Some of the protesters claimed Corporation assistant commissioners recruited them after 1999.

There is no explanation on how this was allowed to happen over the past seven years.

Meanwhile, in an official response to the demands of the workers, Mr. Vijayakumar said he would represent their case with the Municipal Administration Secretary and action would be taken as per instructions of the Chief Minister.

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