500 sanitary workers evicted from Ripon protest site in midnight op

THIRTEEN days after their protest against the privatisation of solid waste management operations in zones 5 and 6 of the Greater Chennai Corporation began, at least 500 sanitation workers were evicted from the Ripon Building entrance and detained by city police in a midnight operation on Wednesday after the Madras High Court, earlier in the day, permitted the government to remove them from the protest site.

- PRAVEENA S A @Chennai

As of 1 a.m. on Thursday, the workers were being taken away by around 40 buses that had been kept ready, police sources told TNIE.

They would be detained temporarily at community halls across the city but were not being arrested at the moment, the sources added. During police action, sources said some woman workers had fainted while some sustained injuries. Those injured would be taken to the hospital for treatment, sources added.

K Suresh, state secretary of the LTUC, told