Dismissed, TN govt staff dies

An assistant education officer died today of a heart attack after she reportedly saw her name in the list of government employees dismissed ...

An assistant education officer died today of a heart attack after she reportedly saw her name in the list of government employees dismissed for participating in the indefinite strike, police said today.

P. Azhagammal (48) had been transferred to Vedasandhur from Vaiyammpatti on July 1, immediately after which she joined the strike called by various trade unions police said. They added that she suffered a heart attack on July 5 after seeing her name among those dismissed. She was rushed to a hospital where she died today.

Azhagammal is the third woman who is reported to have suffered a heart attack due to the drastic action taken by the Tamil Nadu government.

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Meanwhile, the state government continued its recruitment drive, even as the Madras High Court is still hearing a batch of petitions by the striking employees, challenging the validity of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and their dismissal under it.

As the strike entered the seventh day today, the state government continued the recruitment of temporary employees under stringent conditions.

Though dismissed, some of the employees, mostly women, turned up for duty in government offices, but their superiors refused to let them resume duty.

The government recruited 1,000 people to be deployed in the Secretariat alone and 500 in each district. It has plans to recruit over 11,500 temporary employees.

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A division bench of the court comprising Chief Justice B. Subhashan Reddy and Justice K. Govindarajan, continued its hearing for the second day today, on arguments on petitions, which among other things challenged the July 4 ordinance empowering the government to summarily dismiss employees who went on an indefinite strike since July 2.