TESMA on DMK chief for provoking striking staff

The leaders have been accused under Section 5 of TESMA, which deals with offences relating to instigating the strike of the employees and continuously acting in such a way to encourage the employees’ strike, according to top police sources.

On a complaint from the Public Secretary K. Pitchandi, the cases was registered and these would be investigated by CCB Assistant Commissioner Lakshminathan and Inspectors Iqbal, Murali and Selvaraj.

After targeting the employees union leaders, who declared an indefinite strike and went ahead with it on July 2, the government has now directed its attention to the political leaders, which has surprised the political leadership of the state.

As the government employees and teachers boycotted work, the state went on to bring in an ordinance to amend the existing ESMA to provide it with more powers to dismiss employees striking work. The amendment was brought in to have a retrospective effect from April 23.

As the employees’ and teachers’ unions were striking work, the government invoked TESMA to arrest them and also suspend and dismiss them from service. For the first time, the law has been used against political leaders.