Madras HC seeks Tangedco’s counter to PIL for restraining unskilled workers

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the State to file a counter to a public interest litigation seeking direction to restrain Tangedco from deploying unskilled persons as gangmen in technical tasks to prevent deaths and accidents.

A vacation bench of Justice PB Balaji and Justice G Arul Murugan heard the PIL moved by T Vennila, from Chennai. The petitioner contended that in the past four years unskilled field workers have lost their lives in Tangedco solely because they were made to perform tasks that they were neither recruited for nor trained to do the tasks. Apart from these 70 fatalities, there have been recurrent life-altering accidents, wherein over a 100 victims have been physically disabled, she said.

Over the past 4 to 5 years, this particular segment of unskilled field workers has been consistently forced to perform technical work due to shortage of technical staff at Tangedco, she alleged.

Frequent deaths and accidents in the Tangedco attributed to the lack of training and a mismatch between skills and tasks assigned, it is also anexploitation of the workers and amounts to unfair labour practise, she added. After the submission the bench directed the Tangedco to file a counter and posted the matter after two weeks.