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The four Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] councillors in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) staged a walkout from the Council meeting on Friday, June 30, in protest against the privatisation of garbage collection and management in Chennai city. CPI(M) members also staged a protest outside the Ripon Building on Friday morning, condemning the corporation’s recent decision to privatise waste management across all the zones in the city.
It is to be noted that waste management had been outsourced to private players – Ramky and Urbaser – in 10 out of the 15 GCC zones. Each zone constitutes anything from eight to 15 wards out of the 200 wards. Earlier this month, Mayor R Priya announced that the corporation would focus on privatising waste management in two zones, namely, Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, after which they will extend the plan to the remaining three zones – Anna Nagar, Ambattur and Tondiarpet.
According to the CPI(M) councillors, people and people’s representatives from Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar have openly expressed their opposition to the corporation’s decision. At the meeting, Jayaraman, CPI(M) councillor of ward 4, Thiruvottiyur zone, highlighted, “The corporation’s sanitary workers from these zones will lose their jobs if privatisation takes place. Further, private players will be profit oriented rather than working for the betterment of people.” Jayaram further said that the DMK is going against their poll promise of not privatising waste management and demanded the corporation revoke its decision.
In response, Priya and Commissioner J Radhakrishnan said that the corporation would ensure that their workers do not lose their jobs and that they would discuss these queries further. Displeased with their response, the four CPI(M) councillors, Jayaraman (ward 4), Vimala (ward 41), Priyadharshini (ward 98) and Saraswathi (ward 123), staged a walkout from the meeting.
Jayaraman told TNM, “We are opposing because private players are overworking and underpaying sanitation workers. In many zones, they have remained inconsistent and their work has not been satisfactory. If the corporation doesn’t take this into their own hands, the situation is likely to worsen for more citizens and sanitation workers.”
