CHENNAI: The protest by hundreds of sanitary workers urging authorities to drop the plan to outsource solid waste management in Royapuram and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar zones and regularisation of their employment entered eighth day on Friday, with former IAS officer P Sivakami visiting the protest site outside the Ripon Buildings to express solidarity with them.
Sivakami noted that the government had assured job regularisation when the workers, during Covid-19 and subsequent natural disasters, toiled hard to keep the city clean, and urged the state government to hold talks with them.
Though the DMK had assured to regularise their jobs, it failed to keep its promise, Sivakami said. “While the government is pushing for privatisation, it should, at least, ensure that the workers receive salary on a par with their present earnings, which is around Rs 23,000 per month,” she said.
Meanwhile, the police have issued a notice to the protesters not to assemble at the site. “Such notice, when we are holding a peaceful sit-in protest, is an act of intimidation,” the workers said.
Meanwhile, garbage collection and transportation in Royapuram and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar zones, which took a hit for the past few days, are being managed now by deploying workers from other zones and making them work overtime, said a senior official.
The official added that the new contractor is in the process of hiring new workers. “We have assured the workers that their current salaries will be retained by the contractor, but they are not willing to join, demanding permanent employment.”
GCC said on Friday that between July 21 and August 7, 9,696 metric tonnes (MT) and 7,451 MT of waste were collected from Royapuram and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar zones respectively, to indicate that garbage collection has not been affected. While the average collection per day was around 620 MT from July 21 to 31, this dropped to about 400 MT from August when the protest began.