CHENNAI CORPORATION: Conservancy workers demand job security

By G Saravanan
Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on July 1, 2010:

CHENNAI: Worried about their jobs after the civic body planned to remove more wards from the private garbage clearing agency, the Neel Metal Fanalca Workers Union on Wednesday met the Mayor, Commissioner and Opposition leader and appealed to them to consider the livelihood of 3,000 families engaged by them for conservancy works in four zones.

Speaking to Express after meeting the authorities at Ripon Building here, V Babu, president of the union, which represents 3,000 employees, said, “We have met the Mayor and others to voice the grievances of our labour force, which has to bear the brunt ultimately.”

They also handed over a memorandum to the Mayor asking the civic body to reconsider its plan to reclaim wards maintained by Neel Metal Fanalca (NMF). According to sources, Mayor M Subramanian, who gave a patient hearing to the union leader’s appeal, asked them to improve their standard of conservancy measures in other wards that were not reclaimed yet by the civic body.

Union leaders also met Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni and Opposition floor leader Saidai P Ravi. Reacting to their plea, Ravi asked the NMF to correct their work in the three zones, as the Kodambakkam zone was most likely to be taken over.

“If you improve your standard of works in these three zones, the Corporation may reconsider its decision to strip more wards from NMF,” Ravi told them.

Recently, after the Corporation council’s nod, the civic body reclaimed one of its wards (No 128) handed over to NMF for conservancy works. The Corporation also made clear its intention to the agency to reclaim many more wards after a flurry of complaints from residents over their poor conservancy work.

As per the agreement with the Corporation, NMF will clear garbage from four zones of the Corporation under two packages. The first one comprises Triplicane and Adyar and the garbage is cleared for Rs 673 per metric tonne. The second comprises Kodambakkam and Pulianthope, in which the garbage is cleared for Rs 642 per metric tonne.