ROURKELA: Two trade unions of Bisra Stone Lime Company Ltd (BSLC) at Birmitrapur of Sundargarh district on Sunday threatened to shut down Birmitrapur town on September 21 demanding revival of mining PSU and payment of outstanding dues of the workers.
This was announced by leaders of INTUC-affiliated Gangpur Labour Union (GLU) and Birmitrapur Mazdoor Manch (BMM) of local MLA George Tirkey.
Tirkey, who is president of BMM, accompanied by GLU vice-president Kapil Kua and joint secretary A Bibhor said a procession would be taken out on September 20 to mobilise public opinion followed by shutdown of Birmitrapur town on September 21. He reiterated the demands for release of outstanding dues of BSLC workers and shifting of the management power of BSLC from Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) to Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL). Tirkey also demanded shifting of BSLC’s head office from Kolkata to Rourkela as all its mines are located in Sundargarh and adjacent Keonjhar districts. He said the BSLC is the economic lifeline of Birmitrapur town and the Modi Government in the past 30 months did nothing to revive it despite several representations.
Meanwhile, the joint agitation by GLU and BMM launched on September 12 in front of the office of BSLC was called off on Saturday after the management assured immediate release of salary and wages for one month to 720 workers.
The two unions have been demanding release of pending salary and wages for 10 months and festive bonus and ex gratia for 2014-15 and 2015-16 along with deposit of provident fund, insurance and cooperative contributions by the company pending for 36, 28 and 17 months respectively.