Waste collection hit as conservancy workers continue with their protest

Waste collection in Ward 71, under the Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar zone, has been inconsistent for many years, and now the situation has been exarcebated by the week-long protest by conservancy workers, says Pazhani, a resident of Shastri Nagar in Tondiarpet, who commutes through Ward 71. He added that the situation was no different in his locality.

More than 500 workers of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) have been staging a protest in front of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) headquarters for over a week. Led by All India Trade Union Congress, Labour Progressive Union, and All India Central Council of Trade Unions, they demand permanency and job security for conservancy workers. They also oppose the privatisation of solid waste management in Tondiarpet and Royapuram Zones. Workers had staged a similar protest in December 2024.

Mayor R. Priya, said that additional workers had been temporarily deployed in Tondiarpet, Royapuram, and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar zones for conservancy work. “However, there are currently around 1,400 vacancies that have been put on hold due to the workers’ ongoing protest. As a result, some gaps in waste collection have been observed,” she said. She assured that the issue would be resolved once the vacancies were filled.

Syed Abudahir, an advocate in the Madras High Court, said recently, there was an uproar by residents of Angappa street in Mannadi over uncleared waste, following which workers were deployed after police intervention. 

He said the State government must consider the demands of the workers, scrap privatisation move, and put the NULM workers back into the workforce. 

Meanwhile, C. Raghukumar of Community Welfare Brigade said the public were also to be blamed as they were not segregating the waste, and discarded them in the open. He said, “Privatisation is necessary, since the GCC workers do not come for door-to-door waste collection every day. Many workers log in for attendance but leave for other jobs without collecting waste in their assigned wards. There are already a low number of waste bins in many areas. 

A source in the GCC said the civic body could not stop the workers from having more than one job, but they must finish the work assigned to them before leaving. To improve this situation, a private company has been roped in to ensure that the workers do their job, a source added.

The Mayor said talks between Ministers K.N Nehru and P.K Sekarbabu and four representatives from the workers were held a few days ago, and they were asked to examine the demands.

Parties lend support

Political parties have extended support to the protesting workers.

VCK founder Thol. Thirumavalavan, AIADMK leaders, including D. Jayakumar and N. Balaganga, and P. Sathiya of TVK, demanded permanent jobs for the workers. 

Meanwhile, the Naam Tamilar Katchi is expected to conduct a protest on August 10.