“We will paralyse all official activities of the headquarters from Friday, if KMC fails to provide them permanent jobs,” said Sovan Dev Chattopadhyay, TMC legislator and president of INTTUC, the labour wing of the party. More than 10,000 TMC supporters would storm the municipal headquarters on Friday afternoon and gherao the municipal commissioner, Alapan Bandopadhyay, and mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, said Chattopadhyay, while addressing the media from the dharna mancha in front of the municipal headquarters where the labourers are sitting on an indefinite hunger strike.

“Most of these people have been involved with the electricity department of KMC since 1978. But till date the civic body has delivered nothing except false promises,” said Chattopadhyay. The daily earning of these workers is about Rs 70. On several occasions the civic body has promised them permanent jobs.

“Though the electricity and lighting department of KMC has long pending 90 vacancies for the post of mazdoors, it has failed to make any arrangement to recruit these 83 temporary workers,” he said.

But the electricity department of the civic body says that it will not be feasible to provide them permanent jobs.