CPM pitches for development of Ongole Dairy on AMUL line

Ongole:The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Andhra Pradesh secretary Penumalli Madhu demanded that the government develop the Ongole Dairy on the lines of Gujarat government developed AMUL Dairy. The AMUL should not be allowed to manage Ongole dairy.

Madhu participated in the protest by the Ongole Dairy workers and extended support to their agitation, at the Collectorate in Ongole on Tuesday.

As the Ongole Milk Producers Company Limited is brought to function under the AMUL Dairy, the management asked the employees to give their consent for voluntary retirement under VRS- 2020 and submit the forms from January 1 to February 28, 2021. The company has displayed the total benefits for individual employees including the VRS package, IR and leave encashment, etc., in the notice board. The employees whose names are listed have submitted the VRS option forms to the Dairy CEO immediately. The employees' representatives said that many of them are in very much requirement of the money and hence agreed to the proposal of the company. But the CEO has issued orders of termination of service from February 01, without clearing the dues and benefits.

The workers demanded the dairy to the PRC dues from June 2, 2014, to March 31, 2015, DA dues from January 1, 2015, EPF from November 2018, pending salaries from June 2020, surrender leave dues for the last 4 years, leave encashment, increment dues, LIC, credit society dues, IR, gratuity and GIS dues along with the VRS- 2020 package immediately. The workers and employees, who opted for a voluntary retirement scheme- 2020, continued their agitation for the 28th day on Tuesday. A week ago, they shifted their stir to in front of the collectorate demanding the government to release the benefits promised as per the VRS-2020 package for which they mutually agreed to.

The CPM AP secretary Madhu garlanded the photograph of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev and appreciated the dairy workers for rededicating themselves to the path laid by the freedom fighters. He said that the Ongole Dairy helped thousands of people to survive in the backward and drought-hit Prakasam district, but the government neglected the plight of the employees. He said that in the name of modernisation and development, the government is handing over the dairy to the AMUL dairy, as just the union government privatising the Vizag Steel Plant. He demanded the government to stop handing over the Ongole Dairy to the AMUL Dairy and invest in providing facilities and help in its development as another AMUL Dairy.

CPM leaders Y Siddhaiah, Punati Anjaneyulu, dairy employees Chunduri Subbarao, V Prasad, Chevuri Subbarao, Basam Subbarao, Chebrolu Rambabu, KommineniSrinivasulu and others also participated in the programme.