CHENNAI: Around 200 sanitary workers boycotted work on Thursday and staged a protest at the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board head office in Chintadripet, seeking regularisation of their jobs. They called off the protest temporarily following discussions with senior metro water officials later in the day.
“Through subsidies, the state government is encouraging us to own and operate jet rodding vehicles us. However, turning into entrepreneurs is not a priority for us. We would rather have our jobs regularised,” said a sanitary worker, who did not want to be named.
Under the entrepreneurship scheme, sanitary workers are encouraged to own and operate 2,000-litre and 6,000-litre capacity jet rodding vehicles that are mostly used for clearing the sewage network. For this, they will be paid between Rs 17-Rs 20 on a metre basis. Metro water officials said that regularisation of jobs was a policy decision that should be taken by state government.