CHENNAI: Around 627 workers affiliated with the Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam (UUI) under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) were detained by police on Friday after they gathered at Central Square, opposite the Moore Market Complex, to submit petitions to Chennai Corporation Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran at the Ripon Building.
Cleanliness workers in the Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones have been protesting for the past 71 days against the privatisation of solid waste management.
UUI president K Bharathi said nearly 900 workers from the two zones had assembled to demand permanent employment under the Chennai Corporation. “When they tried to submit petitions, police detained them and took them to 10 different locations across the city,” he said.
Bharathi criticised the move, saying, “The Ripon Building wall has become an ‘untouchability wall’ for cleanliness workers. Our demand is simple: give us jobs under the Chennai Corporation or arrest us.”
Responding to the protest, Mayor R Priya said the Corporation had already addressed their key demands of job permanency and wage revision.
“We’ve assured job security for cleanliness workers. The doors of the Chennai Corporation are open to them, and several have already joined,” she said. “Workers in the Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones are being paid Rs 761/day. A resolution will be passed soon to extend the same wage to other zones.”