These
manual workers were formerly fishermen, who had been appointed with a promise
of better wages. They had lost their land to the port.
Due to the strike, the supply of coking coal and coal
has been stalled at the steel plant since April 12.
The steel executives association went to the high
court on May 3 and asked the state government to deploy more police personnel
to immediately ensure that the Gangavaram Port supplied coal and limestone to
the steel plant through conveyor belt.
The
court gave time to the port management till June 24 to negotiate with the
workers and resolve the crisis. The
port has around 1,200 regular workers. It took another 519 workers as per the
agreement the entity entered into with the fishermen who lost their livelihood.
They have been working for the last 15 years and demanding higher wages.
Though the orders for supply of material to the steel
plant were issued three days ago, neither the district administration nor the
police initiated any action. The association is now contemplating to move a
contempt petition.
“I have appealed to all the stakeholders including the
striking workers to help in resolving the crisis as the steel plant is in
urgent need of raw material,’’ said General
Secretary of the
Steel Executives’ Association, KVD Prasad.
As the raw material stock was depleting fast, Atul Bhat, the Chairman and Managing
Director of RINL — the corporate entity of Adani Gangavaram Port
— wrote letters on Sunday 5 May to district collector Mallikarjuna and the
commissioner of police to quickly intervene and save the steel plant from a
crisis.
The
steel plant has five coke oven batteries and three blast furnaces. Currently,
one blast furnace is working. “The
production has come down to 3,000 tonnes per day against the normal production
of 17,000 tons per day,’’ a senior official told this correspondent on Monday.
The total production was 73 million tonnes per annum
when all the three blast furnaces operated.
State President of CITU, Narsinga Rao, said the crisis has reached a peak and “if coke oven
batteries go dead, the company would have to spend thousands of crores to
revive them.”
“The ruling party is deliberately precipitating the
crisis to facilitate privatization of the steel plant,’’ he said.