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| BJD MLAs demand govt intervention to reopen Birla Tyres unit |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar Jul 19, 2010, 00:31 IST |
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Members of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have urged the state government to expedite steps to reopen the locked unit of Birla Tyres at Balasore by resolving all contentious issues between the labourers and the company management in the greater interest of the families dependent on the unit.
They have sought the intervention of the state industries department to ensure that the company does not shift its unit to Haridwar (Uttarakhand) and thousands of labourers engaged in the unit are not deprived of their livelihood.
“There is a conspiracy to shift the Birla Tyres' unit from Balasore to Haridwar. The state government should not allow this as we have given land and various other facilities to the industry. The tyre unit has been locked due to the conflict between the labourers and the company management and the state government needs to intervene to resolve the issue within 24 hours”, said BJD MLA Ananta Das.
In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday, B K Birla Group company, Kesoram Industries said that it has been forced to declare a lockout at the Birla Tyres plant at Balasore.
“The workmen of Birla Tyres Section at Balasore in Orissa, a unit of the company, have resorted to an illegal strike from ‘A’ shift of July 15, 2010. In spite of advice of the district administration and the labour department of Orissa, they are forcibly squatting inside the factory premises of the said section in an illegal manner. In view of the above, the management is forced to declare a lock out at the said section with effect from ‘B’ shift -14:00 hrs on July 16, 2010”, the company said in the statement to BSE.
However, the BJD MLAs alleged that the company abruptly closed the unit without any prior notice, causing great inconvenience to the labourers.
“The company abruptly closed the unit without serving any prior notice. The lock out has caused great inconvenience to the 5000 regular labourers and 3000-odd contractual workers. The factory should reopen and start functioning smoothly”, said Sudarshan Das, a BJD MLA.Pravat Kumar Tripathy, another BJD MLA said, “The company cannot take a unilateral decision to close the factory. It needs to be examined whether there has been a violation of labour laws.”
It may be recalled that on January 19 last year, Birla Tyres had announced a temporary closure of the Balasore plant till January 31 in view of the global economic meltdown. The temporary closure was aimed at cutting production.
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