A day after the Chennai Corporation’s executive engineer in Tiruvottiyur zone was beaten up by a councillor, a number of employees of the civic body registered their protest by sporting black badges on Wednesday.
The engineer, L. Kannan, has been admitted to Government Stanley Hospital and a police complaint has been filed against the councillor, Suriya Babu of ward 10. Babu allegedly beat up the Kannan on Tuesday, after Kannan told him he needed more time to send in an earth mover to Babu’s ward to clear debris.
Babu allegedly entered Kannan’s office room and pulled his hair before hitting him, said an official who participated in the protest. Kannan’s office assistant and other employees had tried to intervene. This kind of uncivilised behaviour would affect the morale of engineers, said another official who was part of the protest.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We were earlier planning mass casual leave. But we gave up that plan as it would affect civic services,” said an employee.
All the councillors of Tiruvottiyur zone visited Ripon Buildings on Wednesday and held a meeting with Mayor Saidai S. Duraisamy. Babu however, denied the assault. Councillors from Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Nolambur and Thiru-Vi-Ka-Nagar have also allegedly beaten up employees of the Corporation in the past year, said officials. No action has been taken so far against such councillors.
“We have asked the police to take action,” said Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan.
ADVERTISEMENT