Madurai Corporation commissioner accused of disrespecting National Commission for Safai Karamcharis

MADURAI: Alleging that Madurai Corporation commissioner K P Karthikeyan has disrespected the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, its chairman M Venkatesan on Monday said that he would raise a complaint against the commissioner with the Tamil Nadu chief minister and the chief secretary and with the President of the country, if required.
Venkatesan said a temporary worker of Madurai Corporation had lost his arm in an electric shock at his work place a few weeks ago. The commission wrote to the corporation a month ago to provide compensation to the corporation worker and to take care of his treatment.
There was no compensation provided when he last checked on Sunday night, said Venkatesan.
When he reached Madurai, Venkatesan was told that conservancy workers were staging at Madurai corporation main building. He went there to hear their grievances. The chairman started listening to the grievances of the workers even as he sought the commissioner to make himself available there at the earliest. The commissioner who reached there stood at a distance and insisted that a meeting could be held in a room.
“Finally, the commissioner reached out to the protesters after a lot of hesitancy. When I spoke to him, he replied in a manner that he knows much more about them than I do. Further, he left abruptly even as I was talking to him,” the chairman said.
“I am disappointed with his behaviour. I see this as a disrespect to the commission. He has not only disrespected me but also the entire conservancy workers community whom I represent,” he said.
Drama prevailed at the protest site as the chairman too joined the protest condemning the commissioner’s behaviour. Soon, the commissioner went to him and insisted that the discussion could be done in the conference hall. Later, the chairman left for the place along with representatives of the protesters to take part in the meeting.
When contacted, K P Karthikeyan said he had hesitation to discuss the issue at the protest site and only insisted on a meeting to be conducted in the conference hall, where all the arrangements were in place since there could be security issues to the visitor. “I didn't mean to disrespect the chairman. There is no question of disrespecting the commission. I had to be cautious since I would be held responsible if something goes wrong in the crowd,” he said.
They had a fruitful meeting later. The commissioner said he had assured he would do whatever feasible at his level to the demands raised by the conservancy workers.