The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Highways employees oppose privatisation of maintenance works

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Tamil Nadu

Highways employees oppose privatisation of maintenance works

Staff Reporter

They will cover mouth with black cloth while at work on Dec. 13, 14 and 15

— Photo: M.Balaji

T. Singarayan, State president, speaking at Tamil Nadu Highways Road Employees Association meeting in Tirupur.

Tirupur: The Tamil Nadu Highways Road Employees Association (TNHREA) has come down heavily on the privatisation of maintenance works on State Highway (SH) stretches.

This was one among the issues featured in the resolution passed at the State executive meeting of TNHREA which concluded here recently .

“The contract for repair of about 193-km stretch of State Highways passing through Krishnagiri, Salem, Dharmapuri and Erode district has already been awarded to private players and plans are now afoot to give away another 140 km in Coimbatore and Villupuram too to private firms,” TNHREA State general secretary M. Balasubramanian said.

According to him, this increasing tendency to privatise the routine works can lead to job losses for TNHREA members in the long run and hence, it needs to discouraged.

Another major demand was that the salary should be paid through the treasury by scrapping the present system of issuing cheque from the assistant divisional engineer's office.

“Issuance of cheque at the discretion of the ADE office is causing huge delays in its disbursal and thus, denying the employees their right to get salary at the beginning of the month,” Mr.Balasubramanian said.

The TNHREA members also wanted the government to consider the period between September 2002 and February 2006 in which the workers were dismissed by the then State Government for staging indefinite strike. “Though the workers were subsequently reinstated, the 41-month strike period is yet to be considered 'on duty',” they said.

He said it was resolved that the employees would be covering the mouth with black cloth while at work on December 13, 14 and 15 to press the said demands if they were not met by the government.

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