Old buildings will be inspected: Minister

The minister’s statement comes in the backdrop of recent roof collapse at Porayar bus depot in Nagapattinam district, in which eight workers lost their lives. 

After participating in the monsoon preparedness meeting in Nagapattinam, the minister said, “The government has ordered to survey old buildings after Porayar tragedy. Soon, officials will be asked to make a survey.” 

Meanwhile, transport union members have urged the government to inspect all depots and construct new buildings. According to the members, as many as 312 depots are functioning across the state and nearly half of them are not in good condition. Moreover, the labour inspectors do not inspect the buildings and this leads to tragedies. 

“We have continuously made representation to the government regarding renovation of bus depots that are in a shambles. However, the government has turned a deaf ear. Still worse, depots give shelter to animals, as there are no compound walls,” said K Natarajan, convener, Labour Progressive Federation. He also added that the government was not focusing on transport employees’ issues. 

Another issue is that there are no proper canteens for transport employees. “Employees bring food from homes and eat in the bus, as the canteen buildings are not in a good condition,” said A Soundararajan, president, Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation.