Going an extra mile to help a visually-impaired person get a transfer from Chennai to his native Madurai, the Madras High Court has directed the State government to approve a post for him, which has been recommended by the Madurai Corporation.

Disposing off a petition by S. Samuvel, Justice D. Hariparanthaman directed the State government to pass an order approving the recommendation of the Madurai Corporation within four weeks.

The petitioner was an employee of the Corporation of Chennai since July 1995. Following his request to be transferred to Madurai as there was none to take care of him in the city, the Chennai Corporation sent a letter to the Commissioner of Municipal Administration in 2013 seeking to take action for his transfer. The Madurai Corporation maintained that there was no vacancy for physically-challenged persons.

Meanwhile, the petitioner moved the High Court seeking for a direction to the Commissioner of the Corporation of Madurai to allocate him a suitable post by a single window transfer from the office of the Commissioner of the Corporation of Chennai.

Taking up the petition for hearing in April this year, the Madras High Court suo motu impleaded the Secretary of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department and the Commissioner for Municipal Administration as respondents.

During the hearing of the case, the judge had observed that the Madurai Corporation cannot take such a technical view of the matter stating there was no vacancy for physically-challenged persons and further strongly directed the Madurai Corporation to take steps to transfer him and not come up with “lame excuses.”

After repeated letters from the Chennai Corporation, the Madurai Corporation , on April 27, produced a letter in the High Court recommending the appointment of the petitioner in the Engineering Department of telephone operator.

The State government had already issued a letter to the Commissioner for Municipal Administration to take action over the transfer of the petitioner from the Chennai Corporation to the Madurai Corporation.

Since the government could have no objection for accepting the recommendation for his transfer, the judge directed the government to pass an order approving the recommendation within four weeks and further posted the case to July 1 for reporting compliance.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/approve-transfer-of-visually...