A group of students demanded action against a private coaching centre for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) at R.S. Puram alleging lack of teachers and basic facilities here on Monday.
Submitting a petition to District Collector K. Rajamani during the grievances redress meet, the students claimed that a total of 15 students have paid the course fees ranging from ₹ 55,000 to ₹ 1 lakh to the Centre.
Alleging that the classes were not regularly conducted for the past 10 days, they claimed that the persons at the coaching centre threatened the parents who demanded their money back.
The coaching centre lacks electricity connection and the students are forced to clean the classrooms as there are no workers, the petition claimed.
The teachers for subjects such as biology, physics and chemistry were also not present as their salaries were not paid by the coaching centre, the students alleged.
‘Ban plastic usage’
Members of the district unit of the Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Association staged a demonstration before the District Collectorate demanding total ban of plastic usage. Led by S. Palanisamy, president of the district unit, the members held a string of items such as plastic bottles and plastic packaging during the demonstration.
In the petition submitted to the Collector, Mr. Palanisamy said that plastic wastes are stagnated in water bodies, canals and catchment areas and blocking the percolation of water to the groundwater table.
He also alleged that plastic wastes are burnt in many places leading to pollution of air and soil, adding that cattle accidentally consume the plastic wastes.
Plea for minimum wage
Contract-based conservancy workers from the Mettupalayam Municipality submitted a petition to Mr. Rajamani demanding that a minimum wage of ₹ 400 should be paid to the workers.
They alleged in a petition that the men among the workers are paid ₹ 230 while women are paid ₹ 190.
The contractor has not heeded to their demands, following which the workers went on a strike since Spetember 20. The conservancy workers held a demonstration outside the Collectorate in the presence of Susi. Kalaiarasan, regional secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi.
A total of 151 conservancy workers signed the petition submitted during grievances redress meet.