CUDDALORE:
Loadmen working with the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, along with their family members, staged a demonstration in front of the Collectorate here on Wednesday, offering to surrender their ration cards.
According to K. Arjunan, district president of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation Loadmen State Welfare Union, surrendering the cards was tantamount to voluntarily foregoing citizenship rights, because their rightful demands remained unfulfilled for years. Addressing the gathering, he said that the loadmen were given wages at the rate of 89 paise for handling a 100-kg bag. On an average, the loadmen were carrying 3.25 lakh tonnes of foodgrains in the State, and that too without any respite, because being daily wage workers they were not entitled to any off or holiday. Even on government holidays, if necessary, they would have to work.
Mr. Arjunan also said that these loadmen were behind the uninterrupted supply of essential commodities to the Public Distribution System and yet they could not stake claim to their rights. They would have to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., climbing over mounds of bags, risking their lives. Many loadmen, who had fracture because of such strenuous work, were being looked after by the fellow loadmen on humanitarian grounds. Mr. Arjunan also said that 8,000 workers were doing full-time job and 10,000 others, part-time jobs with the TNCSC. They had been staging agitations in support of their 14-charter of demands, including regularisation of service, time-scale pay and job security, but in vain.
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