Summary:
Trichy: Employees of the rural development department who are on an indefinite strike staged a road blockade in front of the district collectorate on Monday in support of their demands.Police arrested 144 officials, including 29 women, for disrupting vehicular traffic.Tamil Nadu rural development officers’ association (TNRDOA) and the federation of the associations of the rural development department have been protesting since July 3 across the state.Their 26 demands include pay revision for panchayat secretaries, salary increment for panchayat clerks on par with record clerks, avoiding meetings at night and field inspection on holidays, implementation of Prime Minister Awas Yojana and holding local body elections among other things.On the seventh day of the strike, around 200 officials of district rural development agency (DRDA), block development officers (BDO), deputy BDOs, panchayat secretaries and clerical staff took to the streets and staged a sit-in outside the collectorate.They said that the absence of an elected local body council had stopped funds to the department thus making it incapable of paying salary to staff.An official in DRDA Trichy said that out of the total 1,103 employees in the district, only 38% were involved in the strike while the others had reported for work.A senior officer requesting anonymity said that the strike did not take affect routine work as they managed to run the show with the help of engineers.The chief co-ordinator of the federation, S Ramesh, said that representatives would meet the chief minister and the rural development minister in Chennai on July 12..