Delay in Dalit workers’ pay: SC panel raps Corporation

When the issue came up during a review meeting on Saturday, NCSC vice chairman L Murugan instructed the officials to pay the salaries directly into the bank account of the workers. He further told the Corporation Commissioner to appear in front of the commission, once he gets a notice from it. 

Earlier, the panel was not satisfied with the Corporation officials reply that the sanitary workers were contract workers and their salary was paid to the private company that had employed them. 

Madurai Collector K Veera Raghav Rao, Madurai SP Manivannan and other officials attached to all the major departments participated. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Murugan said that about 212 Dalits and families in the Madurai district, who were victims of various crimes were yet to receive the monetary compensation. 

“Though Rs 1.32 crore has been released last year, still more than 200 people are yet to receive the relief and hence we have directed the district administration to speed up the process of distributing the money to the victims,” he added. 

In the evening, the team members visited Vadapalanji, where a VCK functionary was murdered and Marudhankudi, where reports of two-tumbler system surfaced.

The cadres of VCK staged protest condemning the increasing attack on Dalits, at Madurai on Saturday. VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan participated in the protest and raised slogans against the officials for failing to curtail attacks on Dalits. He quoted the recent incidents where an Ambedkar statue was vandalised in Madurai and three Dalits were hacked. 

Similarly, he also condemned the recent incident at Vadapalanji village near Madurai where a VCK functionary was hacked to death. He said that the police officials were acting in favour of caste Hindus and failed to take action against them.