Chennai, Aug 14 Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) president and former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has launched a scathing attack on the Tamil Nadu government, accusing it of acting in a cowardly manner by ordering a late-night police crackdown on sanitation workers protesting in Chennai for nearly two weeks.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Ramadoss condemned the forcible eviction and arrest of hundreds of conservancy workers who had been staging a sit-in protest near the Greater Chennai Corporation's headquarters on Aravazhiyal Road for 12 consecutive days.
The workers, employed in the Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones, have been opposing the privatisation of conservancy operations and demanding job security.
According to Ramadoss, the protest was peaceful and the demands were reasonable.
"The workers only wanted the Corporation to manage waste removal directly and provide them with permanent jobs. If the government had the will, it could have accepted these demands from day one. Instead, it chose to suppress them," he said.
The PMK leader argued that there was no real obstacle to resolving the matter quickly. Even if the current contractor required additional funds to improve wages and benefits, the state could have provided them.
"But rather than showing compassion and administrative resolve, the government displayed intolerance and fear," he remarked.
Taking a direct swipe at Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Ramadoss claimed that the CM had ample time to intervene but "failed" to do so.
"It appears that the Chief Minister has time only to watch films, not to meet and speak to the poor workers who clean our streets," the PMK president alleged.
Ramadoss said the events of the past night had "exposed the government's priorities and character".
"It is not bravery to send police in the middle of the night to remove poor, humble workers from the streets. It is cowardice. True bravery would have been to meet them face-to-face, listen to their grievances, and resolve the issue honourably," he declared.
He warned that the people of Tamil Nadu would not forgive or forget the DMK government's treatment of the sanitation workers and vowed that his party would continue to stand by the labourers in their struggle for justice.
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