Chennai, Aug. 14 -- Chennai police on Wednesday night detained sanitation workers who had been protesting for 13 consecutive days outside the Greater Chennai Corporation's Ripon Building, following a Madras High Court order to clear the protest site.

Around 800 sanitation workers, opposing the civic body's move to privatise waste management in two zones, were forcibly removed around midnight and taken away by buses within 45 minutes.

For the 13th consecutive day, hundreds of sanitation workers employed under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) protested in front of Ripon Building, demanding a rollback of the GCC's decision to privatise solid waste management services in Zones 5 and 6.

The workers claimed that the move threate...