CHENNAI: Continuing their protest, hundreds of cleanliness workers employed with the Greater Chennai Corporation on contract entered the Cooum near Egmore on Monday morning.

The protest escalated when workers entered the river, triggering brief tension in the area. Police personnel intervened, citing safety and law-and-order concerns, and detained the protesters before taking them away in vehicles.

Over the past several months, sanitation workers have staged demonstrations at multiple locations across the city, including the Ripon Building, Anna Arivalayam and have been detained on several occasions.

Most recently, around 100 workers were detained after attempting to lay siege to the residence of Chennai Corporation Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran, protesting the proposed privatisation of sanitation services.

The workers are seeking job permanency, an end to the privatisation of civic sanitation work, and the implementation of a 16-point charter of demands. According to them, the agitation has continued for 158 days, with repeated protests falling on deaf ears.