Chennai: The number of inspections carried out by the labour department over the past four years at factories and industries to check safety and sanitation has reduced by over 25 per cent across the state. An RTI petition filed by Deccan Chronicle shows that there is a dip in field inspections by government authorities in several districts and the inspection figures have gone down alarmingly in Cuddalore, Vellore, Sivakasi, Nilgiris and Villupuram districts.
According to the RTI data, in 2010, the number of inspections carried out by the department of labour in Vellore district was 800 and in 2013, it dipped to 480. Another district where the numbers had alarming decreased is Nilgiris, where the district recorded an all-time high of 430 inspections in 2010 and in 2013, the number came down by over 60 per cent, recording 130 field visits.
In Villupuram, the number of inspections were 383 in 2011 and in 2013, a mere 196. Similar is the case with Cuddalore, where it came down to about 100 inspections per annum.
The number of inspections in Sivakasi during 2009 was 454 and it dipped by almost 40 per cent, recording 265 in 2013. As a ripple effect, the number of cases booked by the labour department had also gone down by 20-30 per cent across the state, reveal the RTI documents.
When a senior labour department official was contact for the reasons for poor enforcement of over 40 different labour, consumer and child labour Acts, the official said the department was facing acute staff shortage of over 30 per cent. All the 32 districts have district-level officers, but they do not have the manpower and infrastructure to enforce labour and other consumer-related Acts. Most of the labour inspectors do not have office assistants and peons, the official added.
Even some of our enforcing officers do not have department vehicles and they take an auto to inspect five star hotels in Chennai. With the government reducing benefits, most youngsters do not prefer to join the force.In 2012, more than 150 youngsters invited by the Tamil Nadu public service commission attended the interview but refrained from joining the government service, the official pointed out.“Most of the labour laws and consumer Acts are not enforced and the safety of workers are ignored by the authorities,” said Perambur MLA A. Soundarajan, general secretary of CITU.
