Around 80 employees of the merged zones under the Chennai Corporation thronged Ripon Buildings on Wednesday, demanding permanent jobs.
They were part of a group of 902 employees of erstwhile suburban local bodies, which were recently added to the Corporation, forming zones including Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Ambattur, Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Perungudi and Sholinganallur.
In 2011, the Corporation council passed a resolution to regularise the employment of these employees and make them part of the Corporation’s staff. However, the government order to this effect is yet to be passed, said one of the protesting employees.
The decision taken then was that these employees, once regularised, would be posted in any one of the zones created after the merger.
The civic body had also proposed to recruit thousands of new employees through the employment exchange to fill in the large number of vacancies in these added zones. However, even this has not gone through, and most posts have remained vacant, affecting the delivery of civic services in many wards.
Vacancies in the posts of engineers especially, are a huge stumbling block to any sort of development work carried out in the merged zones. Many employees of these zones have been holding additional charges, which has burdened them and affected basic civic work including conservancy operations.
The sanitary condition of toilets too, has been hit because of such challenges.
“We have been working harder after the merger. But we have still not received recognition for our work,” said an employee of a merged zone.
Several temporary employees, who carry out sanitary work in the city, also arrived at Ripon Buildings to register their protest.
“I have to clean 10 toilets a day. But I get paid a pittance. We are not given the necessary cleaning solutions and my wages are not enough for me to buy them. Occasionally, we are given some bleaching powder and acid. Handling the acid causes burns in our legs and hands,” he said.
