CHENNAI: A PIL petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a ban on the strike proposed by 16,682 Village Administrative Officers (VAOs) from January 17. The VAOs have called for the protest, demanding that the State government provide laptops to all VAOs along with internet allowance, immediately.
According to petitioner Munikrishnan, a resident of Tiruvannamalai, the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in March 2012 launched distribution of free laptops to VAOs at a cost of Rs 22.49 crore.
The government announced that printers would also be provided to them. But only 8,751 VAOs have received the laptops so far, that too without any allowance for internet service. They wanted the government to distribute computers to all VAOs immediately. Since a representation by the VAOs had yielded no result, they announced the protest.
Claiming that such a protest cannot be allowed as it would stall the administration of villages throughout the state, Munikrishnan approached the court seeking to declare the strike as illegal.
“When thousands of applications seeking various certificates, including caste and community, are pending with the offices of VAOs across the State, such a strike cannot be allowed,” the petitioner said.
The PIL is likely to be taken up for hearing on January 12.