KOLKATA | July 18, 2017: NMDC employees have decided to observe a day's strike across all its locations on July 28 in protest against the company's plan to sell its upcoming three-million tonne steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district.
This was decided at a meeting of the All India NMDC Workers' Federation (AINMDCWF) held at Raipur on July 15 to chalk out its action plan. It was attended by office bearers of NMDC's two workers' unions, which include Steel Sramik Union (SSU) and Sanjukta Mazdoor Sangathan.
The strike call, involving around 6,000 employees of the country's largest miner, is slated to bring production to a grinding halt across its mines and installations at Bacheli, Kirandul, Bailadila, Donamalai, Panna, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad.
The company's plan to sell off the unit has triggered a series of protests locally. On Monday, the Janata Congress led by former state CM Ajit Yogi called a Bastar bandh. Earlier, on July 14, the executive director in Nagarnar was gheraoed by a large group of people comprising sarpanchs and project affected people (PAPs) from eight nearby villages — Nagarnar, Kasturi, Amagoda, Marpal, Maganpur, Upanpal, Karanpur and Chokawada -- in protest against the company's move.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh recently promised to raise the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the steel minister. Earlier, in a letter to the Centre in April, Singh had warned that the move could trigger unrest in the region.
The AINMDCWF is due to meet again on August 8 in New Delhi to decide on its further course of action, according to Prabhulal Baghel, president of SSU.The strike call comes close on heels of NMDC's announcement about initiating the process of strategic divestment of its Nagarnar Steel plant in Chhattisgarh.
In notice to the BSE on July 14, NMDC said: "Very preliminary activities viz. appointment of Transaction Advisor, Legal Advisor and Asset Valuer for NMDC's Steel Plant (NISP), Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh, has been completed and they have started collecting details."
The NMDC statement said the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has prepared a strategic divestment plan as per the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for strategic divestment of various public sector enterprises (PSEs), including Nagarnar Steel plant.
The 2,100-acre Nagarnar steel plant, due to be commissioned in December, is among the few greenfield steel plants to be set up in the country in the last few years.
(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)