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‘Stop move to privatise highway maintenance’
The State Government should abandon privatisation of maintenance of Highways in the State immediately, said Tamil Nadu State Highways Workers’ Association State president Hamsa Raj.
Talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, he said that privatisation of road maintenance was not only a costly affair but also affected survival of thousands of highway workers. The government had already offered maintenance of 378-km-long roads in Pollachi division to private parties for ? 233.93 crore, 569-km-long roads in Ramanathapuram division for ? 340 crore, 581-km -long roads in Krishnagiri division for ? 450 crore and 770-km-long roads in Thiruvallur division for ? 630 crore.
On the whole, 2,304 km long roads had been given to private parties for maintenance at a cost of ? 1,654.31 crore. If road workers maintained these roads, maintenance costs would be around only ? 560 crore. The government planned to privatise maintenance of other highways also. It should abandon the move, he insisted. Announcing a series of agitation against the State government, he said that the association leaders would start public campaign from Nilgiris, Krishnagiri and Kanyakumari about the ill effects of privatisation between June 10 and 23 and tour throughout the State. The campaigners will meet in Dindigul on July 8 and take out a mega protest rally and conduct a conference. If the government failed to fulfil their demands, they would stage a demonstration in Chennai on August 4. Fozzy Whittaker Jersey
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