News Analysis India

Tag: bhilai steel plant

  • Chhattisgarh man’s body not cremated since January ​4, kin demand job

    By PTI
    DRUG: The kin of a Bhilai Steel Plant employee who died on January 4 have refused to cremate the body till the PSU gives a legal heir a job on compassionate grounds, officials said on Saturday.

    Kartik Ram (57), part of the Chhattisgarh-based steel plant’s safety engineering department, was hospitalised on November 26 last year and died in January 4, his wife Asan Bai said.

    “He was shifted to a Raipur hospital on December 11, then brought back to Bhilai and discharged on December 26. He was hospitalised soon after and died some days later. The doctors said he died of kidney failure and the rules of Bhilai Steel Plant say a legal heir should be given a job if this is the cause of death,” she said.

    “We will not cremate the body till Bhilai Steel Plant authorities give one of us a job. My husband’s body continues to be in the mortuary of the hospital where he died,” she added.

    However, Bhilai Steel Plant officials said there is no mention of kidney problems in Ram’s medical report, adding that he was admitted in hospital on November 26 for fever and phlegm, and died of multiple organ failure.

    Speaking on the issue, Durg Additional Collector Prakash Sarva said the family of Ram and the Bhilai Steel Plant management have had several rounds of negotiations but no solution has been found.

    The body was deteriorating and district officials would conduct the last rites after giving a final notice to the family, Sarva informed.

  • Bhilai Steel Plant workers burn copies of labor and agriculture laws, demonstrate

    Three agricultural laws and four labor code copies were burnt and torn by Bhilai Steel Plant employees on Wednesday morning. The Left and their associated labor organizations expressed anger against the government. Shouted anti-government slogans. Employees demonstrated at the Murga Chowk in the main entrance of the plant with flags and placards in hand. Supported the peasant movement.

    Expressed anger at the cuts being made in the workers’ officials. Venkat, Yogesh Soni, Jamil Ahmed from CPM, Vinod Kumar Soni from CIP, Basant Uike, Shyam Lal Sahu from CPIML, A.K. Shekhar Rao, Shiv Kumar Prasad expressed their views on the issue of workers and farmers. Shyam Lal Sahu, general secretary of the Center of Steel Workers Actu, said that the government is giving concrete shape to the conspiracy to enslave workers.

    Rules and legislation are being changed to entrust corporate houses to government companies. Similarly, farmers are also being harassed. That is why farmers have opened their front. This is a historical struggle of the farmers as well as a historic occasion. When the Indian working class has to go shoulder to shoulder with farmers in this war.

  • Sanitary workers on hunger strike for demands

    While being aggrieved with undue retrenchment the contractual sanitary workers of Public Health Department (PHD), Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) were staging indefinite hunger strike for three days at Hospital Square in Sector-9, Bhilai. The authorities from District Labour Department assured to look into the matter and sort out the issue at the earliest. According to the information, as many as 21 retrenched contractual sanitary workers, including fifteen women six men and a trade union office-bearer from Hindustan Ispat Theka Shramik Union were staging indefinite hunger strike for three days. As there were no measures to reinstate the sanitary workers were staging hunger strike for three days while pressing demands for reinstating them and full wages payment. Yogesh Soni, General Secretary, Hindustan Ispat Theka Shramik Union (CITU), sitting on indefinite hunger strike with these sanitary workers informed that the district administration and labour department authorities were merely giving them assurance regarding immediate measures to resolve the issue at the earliest. He also informed that the police officials and personnel from police station concerned recorded names of striking workers and leaders. He also added that they would continue to stage strike until fulfillment of demands. The contractual sanitary workers along with the trade union leader are staging strike to protest and for checking the alleged malpractices of showing full wages payment through bank accounts and later compelling them for returning certain amount. The trade unions and organisations supporting the strike are State Congress Wing, Loktantri Ispat Majdoor Union, Hindustan Steel Employees Union (CITU) and AITUC and AICCTU. R K Pradhan, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Durg assured to look into the matter.

  • 10 officers and 73 employees retire simultaneously from Bhilai Steel Plant

    Bhilai Steel Plant is going to face shortage of staff and officers. Continued retirements of experienced officers and employees of key departments may increase the crisis. On the last day of the year, 10 officers and 73 employees retired from the plant. Similarly, the graph of retirees has increased from every unit of SAIL. Every year around 3500 personnel are retiring. In the coming ten years, about 35 thousand personnel will retire from the cell. Currently, 70 thousand personnel are associated with the cell. The number of contract workers is increasing in place of regular employees. The BSP has about 16,000 regular employees and three thousand officers. At the same time, the number of contract laborers is more than 30 thousand. General Manager (TP&I-E) Subrata Som, General Manager (Management) Gautam Haldar, Assistant General Manager (RCL) Subodh Oak, Senior Manager (EMD) Avinash Chandra Srivastava, Senior Manager (Plant Garage) retired from service at Bhilai Steel Plant in December ) Farewell to Pramod Kumar Dhere, Senior Manager (Power System) Rajendra Kumar Shukla, Senior Manager (Merchant Mill) Radhe Kishan Mehra and Manager (SMS-2) Sajal Kumar Saha.

  • Six killed, 14 injured in blast at Bhilai Steel Plant

    Six employees were killed and 14 others injured Tuesday in a blast at the Bhilai Steel Plant of state-owned SAIL in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district, police said.

    The explosion took place around 11 am in a gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant in Bhilai town, located around 30 km away from the capital, Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh told PTI.

    “At least six people were burnt to death while 14 others received injuries and most of them were said to be in a serious condition,” he said.

    As per preliminary information, over 24 employees were working at the spot when the accident occurred, he said.

    Police personnel and a rescue team rushed to the spot, he said, adding that all the victims were being taken to a local hospital.

    Rescue operation was still underway at the plant, operated by the state-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in June dedicated the modernised and expanded Bhilai Steel Plant to the nation.

    As per SAIL’s website, the Bhilai Steel Plant is India’s sole producer and supplier of world class rails for the Indian Railways, including 260 metre long rails, and a major producer of a large variety of wide and heavy steel plates and structural steel.

    With an annual production capacity of 3.153 MT of saleable steel, the plant also specialises in other products such as wire rods and merchant products.