Iisco workers sore over trade union's Burdwan strike call
Sunil Mukhopadhyay
CALCUTTA, January 13: Employees of Indian Iron & Steel Company (Iisco) are taking with a pinch of salt the Burdwan district bandh called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on January 16 demanding modernisation of the ailing steelmaker. At a cabinet meeting on December 16 last year, the CPM's labour union alleged that union finance minister P Chidambaram vehemently opposed and stalled the proposal calling for Steel Authority of India Ltd to modernise the plant using the Rs 7,000-crore steel development fund (SDF).Iisco has been the subject of at least nine aborted modernisation plans since its nationalisation in 1972, and the workers feel that something may result from Citu's latest moves. "It is good that West Bengal's ruling party has at last realised the need to modernise Iisco," they say. But, while the people at large may be impressed by Citu's cry for modernising Iisco, old-timers at the plant recall with amusement that it is this very union that has actively ruined the chances of atleast three modernisation plans since 1987. Many senior workers, including those who have been with Iisco before it was nationalised, say the company is a classic case of how an industry is ruined to suit the needs of politicians. Local leaders of Citu, which is spearheading the `save Iisco committee', claim that it was they who had demanded modernisation. But Iisco insiders say their memory tells them otherwise. "When they say so," said an Iisco insider, "they are quietly ignoring the negative role they have played in taking Iisco to its death-bed. In the larger interest of Iisco and about five lakh people directly or indirectly associated with it, let us hope that the English proverb `better late than never' hold good." During the tenure of HD Deve Gowda, SAIL took over in full Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Ltd (VISL) in Karnataka. Steel ministry sources said SAIL is all set to modernise VISL with several financial concessions from the government. Even CITU sources privately admit that the finance
ministry's refusal to back Iisco while clearing the VISL deal will pose an embarrassment for the Left Front government in West Bengal. Iisco was nationalised by Indira Gandhi. It was during her regime that a rehabilitation scheme was implemented to help Iisco survive. In 1974, the Ranchi-based Metallurgical & Engineering Consultants (Mecon) was asked to do a study to help the government understand Iisco's long-term technological needs. This was followed up with a study by Dasturco in 1977, during the Janata regime. The real thrust, however, came when Indira Gandhi, during her second term, brought in the Soviets. Their proposals for Iisco were modified and, in 1984, Mecon drew up a Rs 946-crore modernisation plan for a one million tonne capacity. This plan fell through because the USSR government was not willing to fund it.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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