Author: Ambrish Kumar
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 5, 2001
Facing tremendous pressure from
workers of the Bharat Aluminium Limited Company (BALCO) who have been denied
wages for the second month and with the imminent possibility of the agitation
over its sale to Sterling collapsing, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit
Jogi today asked the Centre for talks.
The new management has made it clear
that it would follow a 'no work, no wages policy. And Jogi, who had turned
the Centre's disinvestment proposal into an issue of violation of tribal
rights, is realising that lie may have overplayed his hand. Over 1500 contract
labourers are facing starvation and the workforce is no longer as enthusiastic
as it was earlier about sustaining the agitation. In fact the Chief Minister
was recently forced to issue a public appeal for a day's salary for the
workers.
Jogi now dreads the possibility
of being accused of leading the workers into a trap and has quickly tried
to wriggle out by expressing his willingness to hold talks with the Centre.
The Chief Minister swallowed his
pride and made the proposal in a letter sent to Union Minister for Mines
Sunderlal Patwa. Jogi has denied the charge that he was stalling the talks
and also rebutted allegations by some Union ministers that he was behaving
like a trade union leader.
He has, however, reiterated his
charge that the Union Government was championing the cause of the private
management even before the Supreme Court and regretted that the Centre
did not honour the resolutions passed by the tribal advisory council and
also the Chhattisgarh assembly on the disinvestment issue.
Jogi has also complained that the
Centre did not take his offer to buy the plant for Rs 552 crore seriously
and the Ministry for Disinvestment turned down the offer even without reading
it.