Garden workers’ protest may hit summer fest preparations in Ooty

Udhagamandalam: The protest by the workers of the government botanical and rose gardens in Ooty and the horticulture farms in the district, demanding regularisation of temporary workers and change of salary structure to regular pay scale from special time-scale pay, entered the fourth day on Sunday.
Nilgiris is home to 14 horticulture farms and five gardens. While around 550 workers are drawing special time-scale salaries, another 900 are temporary workers. The protest was launched at the botanical garden on March 23 under the banner of a joint committee of four unions of the horticulture department workers.
When the botanical and rose gardens, and the Sim’s Park are yet to be readied for the summer festival events in May, the strike by the garden workers has come as a setback.
“In the interest of the gardens and tourists, we have allotted two workers each at the ticket counters and for watering the plants,” said a member of the joint committee.
M Karuppasamy, joint director, horticulture department, said they were not in a position to sort out the issue. “The government has to decide on it. An additional director of horticulture from Chennai will arrive in Ooty tomorrow (Monday) to hold talks with the protesting workers.”
A day before the commencement of protest, the revenue divisional officer had held talks with the workers on the direction of the district collector. But it didn’t yield any results.