Demanding the immediate disbursal of their five month wage arrears, over 1,500 workers hired under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme submitted a petition to Collector M. Karunakaran on Monday.
The petitioners, who staged a demonstration on the Collectorate premises for a while to highlight their demand, said since their families were in a piquant situation due to the non-disbursal of wages, the arrears should be given immediately.
“The number of working days under MNREGS should be increased to 200 days a year and the wages per day should be hiked to ₹400,” P. Balusamy, who led the petitioners, said.
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They also said the MGNREGS should be extended to the town panchayat areas also and demanded ₹15,000 per family as drought relief.
The free rice of 20 kg being given in the public distribution system should be increased to 30 kg a month at least for next six months.
The farmhands opposed the supply of Tamirabharani water to the industrial units even as there was no water for farming operations and drinking purpose.
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A group of people affiliated to smaller political outfits and People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy submitted a petition to the Collector seeking the stalling of work on the construction of 3rd and 4th reactors at Kudankulam even as the first two reactors had been “shut down on 35 occasions”.
While the locals had not been given “comprehensive information” about the functioning of the first two reactors, the nuclear waste being generated by these two reactors had been kept at Kudankulam itself, though several lakh people were living in the vicinity.
The petitioners also said the Tamirabharani water should not be given to the multinational soft drink manufacturing units.