Conservancy work to be outsourced soon in 2 more zones, Greater Chennai Corporation tells Madras High Court

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Tuesday told the Madras High Court that the outsourcing of conservancy operations was a well established executive policy decision taken to ensure better service delivery to the public at large and that the work would soon be outsourced in Tondiarpet (IV) and Anna Nagar (VIII) zones.

In a counter affidavit filed before the third Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and R. Sakthivel, GCC Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran urged the court to dismiss, with costs, two writ appeals filed by trade union Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam (UUI) against the outsourcing of conservancy work in zones V (Royapuram) and VI (Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar).

Explaining the rationale behind the decision, the Commissioner said the State government’s Municipal Administration Department had issued a Government Order (G.O.) on May 4, 1998 accepting that privatisation was one of the tools for effective and efficient delivery of services. This G.O. identified services such as solid waste management, street light maintenance, road and bridge maintenance, and drinking water and sanitation maintenance as some of the primary services that were capable of privatisation without compromising the overarching objectives of the government.

In pursuance of the policy decision, the Labour and Employment Department on July 8, 1999 exempted the GCC from application of certain provisions of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, and paved way for engagement of conservancy workers on a contract basis.

Asserting that the GCC and conservancy workers never had a direct employer-employee relationship and, hence, the question of retrenchment would not arise at all, the Commissioner said the civic body did not issue appointment orders to the workers even under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

He said the NULM workers were working on a daily wage basis and the GCC disbursed their wages only to the self-help groups (SHG), who, in turn, made the payments to individual workers. The court was also told that conservancy work in 11 of the 15 GCC zones had been outsourced to private concessionaires in long ago.

“As on date, there are a total number of 16,063 workers working in the outsourced zones. Those concessionaires are protecting the interest of the workers with all statutory benefits,” the officer’s counter affidavit read and pointed out that a problem arose only when the work was outsourced in Royapuram and Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar zones this year.

Mr. Kumaragurubaran said 975 and 1,059 SHG workers were employed in zones V and VI, respectively, when the conservancy works were outsourced to a private concessionaire, and the latter was more than willing to absorb those workers on a priority basis since it required 3,809 workers in both zones put together.

Though the concessionaire had issued appointment orders to 825 temporary SHG workers, only 425 were working at present and the rest had chosen not to report for duty despite receiving appointment orders, Mr. Kumaragurubaran said and referred to an industrial dispute that was pending adjudication.

Stoutly denying UUI‘s charge of unfair labour practices being followed against conservancy workers, he said: “In respect of the remaining zones IV and VIII too, the tender process is in progress for privatisation of conservancy operations on an outsourcing basis.”

After taking the counter affidavit on file, the judges adjourned the hearing on the writ appeals to December 2 since UUI’s counsel sought time to file a rejoinder.