Cane growers, NDSL staff in the soup

Medak: With the State government keeping mum on its poll promise of taking over the three units of Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited (NDSL), the fate of lakhs of farmers along with 475 workers hangs in balance. The management of the company suddenly decided to layoff the workers temporarily on Tuesday, forcing them to come on to roads, literally.

bitter tale

• With NDSL closing gates, the fate of workers, farmers hangs in balance
• Staff term it as illegal layoff
• Company stopped depositing PF for the last 10 yrs

The workers termed it an illegal layoff as according to their appointment order, the management was supposed to give six months notice before laying them off. Moreover, their past three months’ salary has been outstanding and the management has not been depositing their Provident Fund amount for the past 10 years, the workers alleged. As a result, the workers would not be able to receive their provident fund ranging from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per worker, which is a huge amount for them.

If this wasn’t enough, the pay of the workers has not been revised during three pay revisions (one pay revision every three years). The workers have already approached the labour court and a judgement is expected to come out in a couple of months.

As per the workers, they are fine with being laid-off if their dues are settled, as almost 90 per cent of the work force has only 3-5 years of service left for retirement. However, they are hopeful that the government would take over the company and retain them as workers for the rest of the years remaining.

In 2002, the then Chief Minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, had sold 51 per cent of the shares of the then Nizam Sugar Factory (NSF) to Gokaraju Gangaraju, the current Chairman of NDSL for Rs 65 crore. The agreement was that the amount would be paid in instalments over a period of seven years. An advance of Rs 11 crore was paid. However, successive payments were not made over a period of time.

During YSR regime, in 2006, a house committee was set up and the government had decided to take over the factories. However, there has been a long delay, now putting the ball in the court of the present Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekar Rao, who had promised to take over the company if voted to power.

A few months ago, a Government Order was also issued to that effect and a high-level committee was set up to study the prospects of take over. Bankers from SBI had also conducted a valuation and assessment and came to a conclusion that by paying Rs 45 crore to the company, they could take it over.

According to reliable sources, there has been a disagreement over the amount being offered between the management and the State government, which has left the government in a limbo. Anticipating the eventuality of being taken over, the management has stopped crushing sugarcane this season.

Though 90,000 tonnes of cane was crushed in Mambojipally NDSL factory alone last year, the management, in the layoff notice pasted on a locked-out gate of NDSL Mambojipally factory this week, cited scarcity of water and low production of sugarcane in the area as the reasons for the layoffs.

This claim has been disputed by both the workers and farmers alike, as at least 1.2 lakh tonnes of cane was produced in Medak, Kowdipally, Kolcharam, Veldurthi, Alladurg, Tekmal, Papannapet, Ramayanpet, Toopran and Shankarampet mandals in Medak District alone.

As the farmers in Medak were worried about their produce, the district administration had arranged for the produce to be sent to other factories in Kamareddy and Sangareddy for crushing this season, with government ready to bear the transportation cost as well. This had given some relief to the worried farmers.

In fact, the government had also cleared company’s outstanding dues to the farmers to the tune of Rs 25 crore recently, as the management had expressed their helplessness over the payment. The farmers are hoping the government would take over the factory, without which, their primary source of livelihood, which is growing sugarcane would be affected.