Chairman of National Commission for Safai Karamcharis M. Venkatesan has written to the Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes Vijay Samplan alleging that Madurai Corporation Commissioner K. P. Karthikeyan had behaved in a ‘discriminative and insulting manner’ during his recent visit to Madurai.
Mr. Venkatesan was in Madurai earlier this month to visit a conservancy worker who had lost his left hand in an accident while at work. He also listened to the grievances of conservancy workers, who were protesting on Arignar Anna Maligai premises, the corporation headquarters, pressing for many demands, including service regularisation.
He claimed that though he made several calls to the Commissioner, he refused to attend them and meet the conservancy workers. “His behaviour was disrespectful and uncooperative. The Commission has taken a very serious view of the behaviour,” he said.
He urged Mr. Vijay to take action against the Commissioner under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989. He said that this complaint was not filed for a personal reason but for disrespecting a person holding a post equivalent to that of a Union Minister of State.
When The Hindu contacted Mr. Karthikeyan, he said that all the official protocols were followed during the visit of Mr. Venkatesan. “There has been some miscommunication, because of which he has filed this complaint,” he said.
Mr. Karthikeyan said that he and Collector S. Aneesh Sekar were waiting at the residence of the conservancy worker who had lost his hand, as per the official tour programme of Mr. Venkatesan. However Mr. Venkatesan changed plans and went to meet the protesters on Madurai Corporation office premises. “While I was travelling from the conservancy worker’s home to the Corporation office, it was wrongly communicated to Mr. Venkatesan that I was in my chamber and did not come to meet him,” said Mr. Karthikeyan.
He added that he had requested the Chairman to have a meeting at the conference hall as the protesters had gathered in violation of the COVID-19 safety protocol. “A meeting was held for 1.5 hours and all the instructions of the Chairman were followed. There has been some miscommunication during the incident,” said the Corporation Commissioner.