TIRUNELVELI
Urging the State government to come out with fresh mapping of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and a management plan, a group of people from Uvari submitted a petition to Collector Sandeep Nanduri on Monday.
In their petition, the villagers, led by former panchayat president S.V. Antony, said the State government, after releasing an “unrealistic and impractical” CRZ map and management plan, had announced that public hearings would be held in all coastal districts to elicit views of the people on the possible environment impact on coastal villages and coastal community in case of the implementation of the CRZ management plan.
Since the mapping was not workable under the present condition and had been done in contradiction to the Central CRZ norms, it could not be accepted.
“For example, the map released under the CRZ did not have ‘precautionary line’ that should have been clearly indicated so that the coastal community can restrain its activities within the boundary. The map, which should clearly show the public properties of coastal hamlets, social resources in villages, possible problems the coastal community may face following the implementation of CRZ, etc., is devoid of all these features. Hence, the State government should prepare a map afresh based on the Centre’s CRZ map released in 1996,” said Mr. Antony.
“The Tamil Nadu government should prepare the CRZ map afresh and come out with the management plan before conducting the public hearings,” he added.
Demand for wage hike
Pump operators and sanitary workers of village panchayats submitted a petition to the Collector demanding immediate disbursal of upwardly revised wages.
The petitioners, led by district secretary of their association S. Arumugam, said over 5,000 pump operators and sanitary workers were working in the 425 village panchayats in the district and they were getting a minimum wage of ₹1,500 and a maximum wage of ₹ 5,600. State general secretary of the association K.R. Ganesan had filed a case in the Madras High Court seeking increase in the wages for sanitary workers and pump operators.
Meanwhile, the State government, based on the recommendation of Tamil Nadu State Committee for Minimum Wages, issued an order on October 11, 2017 fixing the wages for sanitary workers at ₹9,725 and pump operators at ₹11,725.
“But still no step has been taken by the government to give the wages to sanitary workers and pump operators as per the order,” said Mr. Arumugam.
Published - April 09, 2018 07:58 pm IST
