Overview

• Police detained between 600 and 1,000 sanitation workers late on August 13, clearing the sit-in from Ripon Building’s footpaths and moving demonstrators to community halls across Chennai.
• Journalists covering the operation reported that police seized a drone and other equipment, prompting the Chennai Press Club to demand the immediate return of media gear and footage.
• The Tamil Nadu Cabinet introduced a six-point welfare package that promises free breakfast, extended medical benefits, increased accident insurance, housing aid, entrepreneurship subsidies and education support for workers’ families.
• Protesting workers and unions maintain their demands for formal job regularisation and a reversal of the outsourcing plan remain unmet, and they have lodged habeas corpus petitions and tribunal references.
• Political figures from the opposition and some DMK allies, including actor Vijay, PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss and AIADMK’s Edappadi K. Palaniswami, sharply criticised the government’s handling of the midnight detentions.