Demanding Madurai Corporation to immediately terminate the private agency, which has been entrusted with the contract to remove garbage, over 2500 conservancy workers resorted to a sit-in protest in front of the Anna Maaligai, the Corporation headquarters on Monday.

A majority of the work force, affiliated with the CITU, a wing of the CPI (M), urged the authorities not to give such an important task of the civic body to private agencies in the future. The outsourced firm was keen on making money than keeping the city clean. They indulged in downsizing human resources and neglected the genuine demands of the workers.

Speaking to media persons, CITU district secretary M. Balasubramanian said that though the agreement with the private firm ends in about a month, the new government should not give the contract to lift garbage to some other private agency.

The DMK government had issued two G.Os - 139 and 152 - against the workers and the TVK government headed by C. Joseph Vijay should immediately withdraw them as it was anti-workers. The civic authorities should directly be given the responsibility to clear the garbage as it is the primary duty of the municipal administration.

Above all, the workers were harassed and humiliated. Sometimes, they were threatened and terminated with flimsy reasons by the private agency. To put an end to all this, the new government should not give the contracts to any private firm, Mr. Balasubramanian stressed.

Normal work hit

As the workers stayed in and demanded a response from the civic authorities, the normal life was hit in many wards in Madurai city, Mr. Balasubramanian said and added that at a time, when the workers have been insisting to recruit workers, the shortage had crippled the work. As a result, garbage could not be lifted from all the wards daily.

The city, which has 100 wards, lifted close to 800 to 850 metric tons of garbage daily. Today, with the strike, the work was paralysed, the union members said.

However, Corporation health wing officials said that after persuasion that the government would be briefed about their demands, a majority of the workers turned up for duty. There was a few hours of delay in clearing the garbage from the respective locations.