There is still no clear indication as to how many Tamil Nadu government employees have not been reinstated on the ground that their names figured in the FIRs registered in connection with the recent strike. Chief Secretary Lakshmi Pranesh, who held a high-level meeting with a few secretaries in the Secretariat for over 90 minutes to discuss the issue yesterday, merely told mediapersons that the government was still toting up the number of those who were reinstated and of those against whom FIRs had been registered under Sections 4 (participating in the strike) and 5 (instigating others to join the strike) of the Tamil Nadu Essential Service Maintenance Act. Sources in the JACTTEO-GEO claimed FIRs had been filed even against those employees who had gone abroad with the government’s permission, or retired or even died. Worse, in some instances, even those against whom there is no case pending still find themselves out of work, as happened in the Industries Department in the Secretariat. Of a total strength of 108 employees, as many as 81 were sacked. Though no one was either arrested or their name figured in the FIRs, none of those 81 dismissed employees were allowed to join duty yesterday despite the fact they were ready to give a letter of ‘‘unconditional apology’’ as directed by the Supreme Court. Now the government is said to be contemplating taking action against a senior officer of the department for failing to file any FIRs against his staff. Ironically, the head of another department in the Secretariat who had allowed even those figuring in the FIRs to rejoin duty on the ground of shortage of ‘‘experienced hands’’ might escape any punitive action as he is said to be close to the powers-that-be. Meanwhile C. Kuppusamy, DMK MP and LPF president, who is also one of the petitioners in the case in the Supreme Court, told The Indian Express that he would file an interlocutory petition on Monday challenging the government’s failure to reinstate employees. Kuppusamy claimed that during the hearing of the case on Thursday, the state government’s counsel informed the Court that 2,200 people were arrested and FIRs had been filed against another 3,000 employees under ESMA. A meeting of the leaders of the Central trade unions — LPF, CITU and AITUC — which was held in Chennai under the chairmanship of Kuppusamy yesterday condemned the state’s ‘‘anti-labour’’ policies and its ‘‘vindictive attitude’’. The meeting decided to support the cause of the affected employees and teachers till they got justice. T.K. Rangarajan, CITU state general secretary, and S.S. Thyagarajan, AITUC’s state general secretary, also participated in the meeting.
