look news india
Korba/Janjgir, May 27 (HS). On the call of Chhattisgarh Power Mazdoor Sangh HMS Union, tool down has started in KSK Mahanadi Power Company Limited Nariyra from 7 am on Monday, due to which the work of the factory has come to a complete standstill. In the month of February, the workers' union had taken out a motorcycle rally in large numbers and handed over a memorandum of their demands to the district administration, in which no positive initiative has been taken till now.
The benefit of annual increment to the workers has been pending since April 2024, along with this, in the agreement of last year, there was also talk of construction of hospital, for which an advance payment of Rs 50 lakh has been made to the district administration. After the start of construction work, it was said that the remaining Rs 1 crore 25 lakh would be released in installments, the construction work of which could not be started till date. Apart from this, last year, the education system of children was started by tying up with some schools, there are many obstacles in that too, since the tie up has been done with the schools of Akaltara, so due to the long distance, the transport service of the children keeps getting disrupted. In the first year itself, the school buses of the children used to stop in the middle, which was hindering the education of the children. Therefore, the workers union has demanded that the factory management should make the arrangement of transport till the factory builds its own school in the affected area, in addition to this, the rights available under the basic and labor law have been demanded.
In this regard, HMS Union's labor leader Mulchand Norge said that a meeting was held with the management in the factory premises on Saturday, but things did not work out with the factory management, the management is not showing any interest in fulfilling our demands. At the same time, labor leader Lobhan Sahu said that we always want positive action on our demands in a peaceful manner, but due to the stubbornness of the management and its avoidance of responsibilities, we had to go down the tools in protest.
HMS Union General Secretary Balram Goswami said that the factory's sale process is going on at a fast pace, so we want that whatever benefits or facilities are being agreed upon for the workers should be written and clear, but we are not able to reach a consensus with the management. We do not accept verbal assurances on some issues. In the coming time, a new owner of the factory will come, possibly there will be a change in the management, so we do not want that the struggle we have been doing for the last 10 years should continue in the future as well. Our effort till the last moment has been to reach a settlement in a peaceful manner without any hindrance, but we were not supported by the management.