The members of Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board Workers' Federation has appealed to the TWAD Board to directly employ labourers under contract system thus avoiding contractors.
Speaking to reporters, Federation general secretary P.H.C.M. Gandhi and Vice-president K.K.N. Rajan said here on Saturday that the Board should directly take in the labourers without any agent or contractor's intervention since they allegedly exploited public money.
By abolishing the contract for employment through contractors, malpractice, cheating and forgery of field engineers may be prevented, they said.
Claiming to have obtained information under the RTI Act, they said that though for the maintenance of combined water supply schemes, about 10,000 contract labourers had been sanctioned for different posts by the Board management, many contractors' had employed less number thus bringing in huge loss to the exchequer. Such irregularities in the recruitment had been there since 2007, they charged and demanded probe by the vigilance authorities.
The Board could employ contract labourers on a contract basis directly as has been done in the TASMAC without any agent or contractor involvement, Mr. Gandhi suggested.
The Federation appealed to the Board chairman and other authorities to obtain statements from all the contractors on the total number of contract labourers recruited for the financial years beginning 2007. A copy had been forwarded to the Director Vigilance and Anti-corruption for discreet probe, they added.
