KOCHI: ‘Nokku kooli’ reared its ugly head again with a section of CITU workers obstructing the construction of a road under Kochi Corporation at Panampilly Nagar on Saturday. The unionists blocked the tipper lorry carrying tiles to the construction site near Koithara bridge for about four hours demanding ‘nokku kooli’, stalling the construction of the road at Friendship Nagar for a while.
The work involving paving of tiles on the road was underway during this time. As per the request of the lorry driver, a team of police officers from Ernakulam South police station reached the spot and settled the issue. The incident occurred around 8 am.“The police reached the spot and the goods were unloaded from the lorry in the presence of the officers by noon,” said an officer. According to the officers, they have not registered a case since a written complaint in this regard was not lodged.
“On Friday, the workers obstructed the work demanding money and the work came to a halt. Following this, I approached the trade union leaders. However, on Saturday also the workers blocked the lorry owned by the contractor near Avenue Centre at Panampilly Nagar. The works as part of the renovation of three colonies in Perumanoor division are underway here,” said K X Francis, councillor. The Labour Department had banned the obsolete ‘nokku kooli’ practice used by headload workers to extract exorbitant wages without doing any work on May 1 last year.