Chennai, AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam has demanded Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin to issue a Tamil version of the draft rules recently issued by the state government's labour department so that labourers can understand its proper meaning.

The state government's labour department had recently issued draft notifications of three labour rules -- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Tamil Nadu) Rules 2022, Industrial Relations (Tamil Nadu) Rules 2022, and Code on Wages (Tamil Nadu) Rules 2022.

The AIADMK leader and the former Chief Minister said in a statement that it was difficult for workers and labour unions to go through each of the draft rules that are in between 50 to 100 pages and comprehend it.

"The Tamil version must be issued along with the English draft," Panneerselvam asserted, adding that it was "unfortunate that the government had not taken any steps for the same".

He pointed out that though the state government notified the draft of these three rules in the gazette on April 11, the Tamil translation of these were not released.

The former Chief Minister has claimed that even during a consultation meeting with the labour unions, Tamil version of the draft was not provided -- leading to a total disappointment for the labour union leaders.

He pointed out that the labour union leaders had said that "they would have been able to understand the content of the laws only if Tamil version of the draft was provided".

Panneerselvam urged the Chief minister to take urgent steps to ensure that the draft would be available in Tamil so that workers and labour union leaders are able to properly comprehend and understand the laws in full.