COIMBATORE: In a shocking instance of caste discrimination, a bus driver attached to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) Mettupalayam branch-1 in Coimbatore district, allegedly cleaned and smeared the branch manager’s office floor with cow dung on January 23 after the latter, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC), received a transfer order.
Following the incident, a senior TNSTC official from Coimbatore region suspended the driver, S Sasiraj, who also serves as secretary of the LPF union affiliated with the DMK, on charges of caste discrimination on Thursday.
TNSTC sources said Sasiraj, during his tenure as traffic controller, assigned bus crew from the SC community on long routes while posting crew from other castes, including his own, to shorter routes at the branch. He also allegedly collected money from crew members in exchange for granting them leave permission and posting them on short-route duties.
As he wielded political influence, he allegedly acted at will, indulging in caste-based discrimination such as using caste slurs, denying leave and arbitrarily allocating duty hours, in disregard of branch managers’ orders. Owing to this, six branch managers were transferred within a span of one-and-a-half years.
The previous branch manager had removed him from his TC post, leading to his transfer within 15 days. About 40 days ago, the new branch manager, D Prakashkumar, hailing from an SC community, joined the branch.
Sasiraj allegedly pressured Prakashkumar to follow his instructions, but the former refused and instead, issued a memo against Sasiraj for caste bias. Enraged, Sasiraj allegedly pressured top officials, resulting in Prakshkumar’s transfer to Ukkadam without a valid reason.
On January 23, Sasiraj allegedly had a maid clean the manager’s office floor with cow dung, stating that the “pest” (referring to the BM) had left the branch. The incident allegedly occurred in front of Prakashkumar, who was left traumatised and has not reported for work since.
Meanwhile, some bus crew escalated the matter to higher authorities, and Sasiraj was temporarily suspended.
Sasiraj, who denied all the allegations, told TNIE that false charges had been leveled against him. “I usually maintain the cleanliness of the branch. On that day, the room was unclean, so it was cleaned, and cow dung was smeared as part of maintenance.” Repeated attempts to reach Prakashkumar went in vain.
When contacted, an official from TNSTC Coimbatore told TNIE that an inquiry into the matter is under way.