The Coimbatore corporation will issue a show cause notice to a contractor for paying sanitary workers in demonetised notes. A report by Komal Gautham in Times of India notes that 2000-odd sanitary workers were paid in old currency soon after the demonetisation announcement on November 8. However, it was only when the workers were paid in old notes for their December salary as well that alarm bells started ringing.

While their salaries of Rs 6000 each per month are normally transferred to their respective bank accounts, the old cash payments for the months of November and December have raised several questions.

Quoting activists, the newspaper, writes that the contractor, Vardhan Infrastructure Private Limited had allegedly pumped in unaccounted cash worth Rs 2.4 crore into the market. Calling it an attempt to launder money, R Damodaran, district president of Uzhaipor Urimai Iyakkam alleged that the contractor threatened to delay the workers’ salaries if they refused to accept the old notes.  

Meanwhile, Coimbatore corporation commissioner K Vijaya Karthikeyan told TOI, “I have asked city health officer K Santhosh Kumar to issue a show cause notice to the contractor seeking an explanation within five days.”

Although the sanitary workers informed the corporation of the issue in November, no action was taken by officials, they allege.