The Hindu : Reinstated staff join duty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Reinstated staff join duty

By Our Special Correspondent

Employees turning up for work in the Secretariat campus in Chennai on Monday. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI Aug. 11. As much as 95 per cent of the sacked 8,063 staff members, reinstated by the State Government following a Supreme Court order, reported for work today.

Many who came back to their seats at Ezhilagam, Chepauk government office complex in the city, after a 40-day break, merely said they were glad that the ordeal — which followed mass dismissal of government employees in the wake of the July strike — had ended. While a couple of them said they would be happier had all employees been reinstated, a few others told them not to offer any comment.

The scenes were no different in the various office clusters in the city including the Directorate of Public Instruction and the Directorate of Medical Services. Employees came much ahead of 10 a.m. reporting time, while some stayed beyond close of work to catch up on pending work.

But at the Secretariat, nothing changed. All 2,215 Secretariat employees and 534 officials are still under suspension.

Of over 14,000 employees, who had first information reports lodged against them, the Government reinstated only those who faced charges under Section 4 of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (participating in the strike) but not belonging to the Secretariat service or officer's grade and who were not arrested. The remaining 6,072 employees have to wait for a verdict from a committee of three former judges, to be constituted by the Madras High Court. About five per cent of the employees eligible to be reinstated did not report today, employee associations conceded, but said that as the order had retrospective effect, they could even report to the appointing authority tomorrow.

However, N.L. Sreedharan, leader of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association, attributed non-reporting of certain groups of staff to some confusion in certain instances. For example, in Coimbatore, nearly all employees of the Commercial Taxes department — 373 persons — could not join as they were all charged under Section 5 of the TESMA (instigating strike). "How can all persons be charged with instigating a strike," he asked.

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