CHENNAI: Cleanliness worker, S Padma (48), has been at the receiving end of admiration and praise ever since the news of her returning gold worth Rs 50 lakh broke out. She was rewarded Rs 1 lakh by the chief minister for her honesty.

Padma, who works as a cleanliness worker in T Nagar, found an ice cream box filled with gold while cleaning the Muthamman Koil Street on Sunday (January 15).

"I initially thought it was a box of curd rice that I could take home and eat. However, later it turned out to be gold when I opened the box," she told DW Tamil. The box reportedly contained 45 sovereigns of gold. She and her husband immediately reported it to the Pondy Bazaar police. The police later handed over the gold to the rightful owner, a jeweller who absent-mindedlyedly left it on a pushcart.

Conservancy workers in the city had been protesting since August last year against the privatisation of waste management by the Greater Chennai Corporation. The workers' unions, UUI and the Left Trade Union Congress (LTUC), claimed that 1,952 workers were illegally dismissed. Workers, who had been struggling without income for six months, took part in the protest, and four cleanliness workers died during the course of the agitation.

The workers called off their protests recently, after HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu, along with city mayor R Priya, assured them of regularised jobs within the corporation and a resolution regarding their salary scales. 

(With Bureau inputs)