Retrenched workers’ stir enters second day
PARADIP: Around 200 agitators, including women and children, were taken into custody after the police resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse a mob comprising retrenched workers of Cargill India company whose stir entered the second day on Thursday.The stir affected supply of raw materials to the plant site and production. Six of the workers were arrested for staging mass dharna outside Adani Wilmar Ltd office here in violation of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 clamped in the area.
As per reports, Cargill India had set up a cooking oil refinery in Paradip in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of US trading giant Cargill, imported crude palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and refined it in its Paradip plant. However, the company shut down its refinery in 2016 due to losses. Nearly 152 workers, who were engaged in the refinery for packing, lost their jobs.
Meanwhile, the company sold its refinery plant to Adani Wilmar Ltd recently, but no steps were taken to provide jobs to the workers. On Wednesday, they began dharna outside the Adani plant office and closed its gates as a result of which, 8,500 MT of raw materials could not be brought to the plant site. This also hit production from the plant.A senior officer of Adani said it is illegal on the part of the workers to stop movement of raw materials to the plant. They could have come to the management to air their grievances through a proper channel, he added.
Villagers protest illegal lifting of sand
Jagatsinghpur: VILLAGERS of Machgaon under Balikuda block staged demonstration on the Devi embankment in protest against illegal lifting of soil from the river bank on Thursday. They alleged that contractors, in connivance with some revenue officials and ruling party leaders, have been illegally lifting soil from river Devi for construction of approach road to Dhanikhia bridge in Naugaon block. Contractors have pressed JCB machines and tractors to lift soil. The villagers alleged that although law permits the contractors to dig only one feet of the river bank to lift soil, they have been digging 10 to 12 feet deep thereby damaging the river embankment. The river bank near Asilo village under Balikda block is replete with large pits.