KARUR: Though the State Government has ordered regularisation of the services of the non muster roll (NMR) staff in municipalities, the difficulties they had to weather in cementing their place has left them bitter.

Members of the Karur Municipal Council and its Chairman, K.V. Ramasamy, even cried foul at attempts to tamper with the service records, a few of the selected NMRs bitterly complain that they had to "pay a heavy price'' for their placement.

The Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, through a Government Order (MS) No. 21 dated February 23, 2006, regularised the services of 6,058 employees on consolidate pay or were working as NMRs on daily wages in the municipalities and corporations (except Chennai) and another 674 NMRs working in Grade III municipalities, all over the State. The NMRs had been daily wage earners since at least before October 1, 1996, when a ban on their recruitment came into effect. Some have even put in 18 years of service. They have been deployed as street light maintenance staff, sanitary workers and water supply staff, each earning Rs. 100 a day.

The Commissioner of Municipal Administration (CMA), Chennai, ordered that the local bodies could regularise the services of necessary NMRs against vacant positions and pass on the rest to the respective Regional Directors of Municipal Administration (RDMA) for being re-distributed to fill existing vacancies in the zone. If still there were NMRs, then their list could be sent to the CMA office so that they could be redeployed elsewhere.

While this was a simple move, the tier-system and decentralisation has forced the NMRs to contend with "eager and expecting'' officials and local body chiefs in certain cases. This also led to tampering of the service records of the NMRs with juniors coming to the fore. A big hue and cry was raised in the last Karur Municipal council meeting here over the issue.

In Karur Municipality, there were 62 NMRs, and following the GO (MS) No. 21, services of 14 of them were regularised. The local body also retained the services of 15 others to be filled up "later''. The services of the rest 33 persons were placed at the disposal of the RDMA, Salem, for redistribution. In the Salem region, the maximum NMRs to be redeployed came from Karur, it is said. Some NMRs, who obviously do not want to be identified, told The Hindu that they had to "pass the test'' at every stage, down to the level of appointment at the local body level. They claimed that they had already spent over Rs. 30,000 for getting a job with a monthly pay of Rs. 5,200. When the NMRs pointed out their inability to give the demanded money to the powers that be, in a couple of instances the latter bluntly told the NMRs that loans for the "payments'' could be arranged from private lenders and that after regularisation, they could get bank loans to repay the old dues. "Had there been a centralised appointment committee to decide the issue, we could have been spared of the amount we have spent now,'' rues a selected NMR. Interestingly, the Karur Municipal officials have not opened service registers for the 14 regularised NMRs. This they fear could spell trouble at a later date. While those awaiting orders rue they had to shell out money to get their due appointments, those appointed are sore that the worst is not yet over.

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