Agitation against mass downsizing continues
Agitation against mass downsizing continues
PUDUCHERRY: Mass agitations are being held here to protest against the retrenchment of temporary workers engaged in government dep..

PUDUCHERRY: Mass agitations are being held here to protest against the retrenchment of temporary workers engaged in government departments, societies and other quasi-government institutions, leading to a political tussle between the Congress and AINRC.While Chief Minister N Rangasamy is trying to wash his hands off the issue claiming he is neither responsible for engagement nor retrenchment, the Congress is seeing this as a political vendetta with the ultimate intention to engage workers selected by his government.Though the exact number of workers retrenched is not known as the orders are being issued since mid-June, it is roughly estimated to be around 3,000. The services of 1,400 workers in PWD, 113 in Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 35 in Bharathiar Palkalaikoodam have been done away with, who were engaged some time in last year during the tenure of Congress Government led by V Vaithilingam. The terminated workers have sat on dharna in front of the respective institutions demanding their reinstatement. Though the government is well within the rules to retrench them as the engaged workers are much higher than the requirement and the state is unable to bear the financial burden, it has set in motion larger issues that needs retrospection. The temporary workers have been engaged by all governments from time to time, they have also been retained by shifting them from one work to other till finally absorbed in vacant posts. This was mainly done by politicians in power by bypassing the employment exchange and the trend has been on for the past 40 years. Rangasamy who have given directions for retrenchment had himself been a champion of such engagement. In fact, it became a issue during his tenure from 2001 to 2006, when a good number of people got engaged mostly from his constituency Thattanchavady. A batch of writ petitions (by more than five petitioners)  against such engagement were filed in High Court of Madras against such employment in 2005, which led to an interim order by the court based on which the government evolved a scheme that was later upheld by the HC. As per the Puducherry Casual Labourers (Engagement and regularisation) scheme, 2009, no one would be engaged, recruited or regularised since the notification of the scheme on February 27, 2009.The implementation has started with the termination of services of 913 workers engaged in PASIC, a government corporation after they were engaged as voucher paid labourers on December 31 last year and February 21 this year, in violation of the notification.However, the Congress maintains that providing jobs to youth is a social responsibility of the government and hence when it was in power, it regularised the services of all the temporary workers engaged by Rangasamy government. Similarly, the rules could be re-framed to retain the services of those engaged.

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