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No signs of BILT revival
It’s been almost a year since the State government had offered a subsidy worth Rs 30 crore per annum to Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) to restart operations at the Kamalapuram unit in a bid to protect the livelihood of over 1,000 employees. However, the fate of the employees still hangs in balance.
Bhupalpalli: As many as 300 employees under the aegis of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) took out a rally in Bhupalpalli on Monday to represent their problems to the district administration.
It’s been almost a year since the State government had offered a subsidy worth Rs 30 crore per annum to Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) to restart operations at the Kamalapuram unit in a bid to protect the livelihood of over 1,000 employees. However, the fate of the employees still hangs in balance.
It may be noted here that BILT, the only major industry in undivided Warangal district was shutdown on April 3, 2014 due to adverse global and domestic market conditions of Rayon grade pulp and viscose staple fibre manufactured at the unit. Since then there was no end to the ordeals of the employees.
Following the workers’ relentless stir and pursuance of district leaders, the government issued GO MS 91 on December 14, 2015 extending subsidy of Rs 21 crore towards supply of pulpwood (Eucalyptus and Bamboo) per annum and Rs 9 crore on supply of power per annum to bail out the 36-year-old industry thereby to support the employees.
The employees, who soaked in joy following the government’s announcement, soon found that there was no forward movement from the BILT management to resume the unit operations.
On the other hand, the workers, who ran out of finances long ago, are not even in a position to afford healthcare services. It also allegedly led to the death of a few employees.
Against this backdrop, the rally was held. Joint Collector D Amay Kumar told The Hans India: “A meeting will be convened soon to discuss about the revival of the unit with the BILT management and the employees.”
Without salaries for the last 18 months, the employees have been living in a state of penury, BMS district general secretary Adagani Janardhan Rao said, demanding the government prevailing over the BILT management to release at least a part of salary if not total.
Meanwhile, it’s reported that the management is not willing to restart the mill until it sells its Malaysian unit Sabah Forest Industries.
Another theory doing rounds is that old machinery in the unit is out of vogue and the management is not ready to invest huge sums of amount to replace it.
BJP State general secretary Gujjula Premender Reddy said that the State government should to speak to BILT management to restart the only industry in the region or to take over it on its own.
