TIRUNELVELI
About 35 nursing staff recruited on a temporary basis in May 2020 for the covid-19 ward, who were terminated from their jobs on August 4, urged Collector V. Vishnu to consider them for deployment in other government hospitals.
Submitting a memorandum at the weekly grievance day meeting here on Monday, the nurses said that they were working in Koodankulam Government Hospital in Tirunelveli district since the covid-19 pandemic surfaced last year.
They claimed that they joined the GH after quitting private hospitals and clinics. However, the government had terminated them from service attributing that the number of covid-19 virus-affected patients was declining and that the covid care centres were being closed.
The petitioners said that having worked in the Government Hospital on a temporary scale, they urged that they be posted in some other GH where vacancies were not yet filled.
Bus service sought
Women from Manapadai Veedu demanded the TNSTC administration to operate buses to their hamlet and help them reach Tirunelveli junction at a faster pace. The members said that prior to the covid-19 pandemic, the TNSTC operated eight trips of 12B. However, post-covid-19, the buses were not only suspended, but the number of trips too was reduced.
The Collector should direct the TNSTC authorities to ply regular trips as it was free now for the women to travel as otherwise, they had to cough up money to travel by private auto rickshaws.
Tenkasi
A large number of farmers alleged that the kar paddy crop raised by them on about 1600 acres faced pest-related issues.
Submitting petitions, the farmers who had come to the Collector's office with samples of the paddy plants said that the crops had been hit by pest in Govindaperi, Meenakshipuram, Ramalingapuram, Rajangapuram, Mandiyur, Pillaikulam, Chettikulam among other villages in Tenkasi district.
They said that the crops were 60-day-old and that they had strictly followed the guidelines from the Agriculture department with regard to fertilizers and water feed for the crop. However, over the last 20 days, a type of pest had hit many fields that they were apprehending poor yield or the plants may wither over a period of 10 or 15 days.
With another 45 days time for the harvest, the farmers urged the Collector to give directions to the officers to visit their fields before the situation worsened.