KASARAGOD: Nearly three months after chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated KEL-Electrical Machines Limited (KEL-EML) after taking it over from the Union government, the machines of the unit in Kasaragod are still silent.
The unit got orders worth Rs 74 lakh to make five 160 kV alternators -- generators that convert mechanical energy to electrical energy -- diesel generators and spares. "But neither do we have enough raw material nor working machines to manufacture them," said Ragesh Kumar, an employee and leader of INTUC, the Congress-affiliated trade union.
In a review meeting chaired by minister for industries P Rajeev on June 2, principal secretary P M Mohammed Hanish said 40% of the total 120 employees have no job in the unit. Today, the company has only 99 employees. "And almost all of them are sitting idle. We come in the morning and leave in the evening. If this is how they are planning to run the unit, it will shut shop soon," said Kumar.
In November, the unit gave its computer numerical control (CNC), which controls complex machines such as lathes, and vertical turning machines for maintenance. "Eight months on, the important machines are still under repair," said V Pavitharan, another employee and vice-president of INTUC in the unit.
First of all, the government should have focused on appointing an able managing director, who would steer the factory out of the trouble, and second, provide working capital to the unit.
In the meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram, the managing director of Kerala Electrical & Allied Engineering Co. Ltd (KEL) Col (retired) Shaji Varghese said a full-time director or a managing director should be appointed at its subsidiary KEL-EML. The stakeholders agreed to appoint a senior employee of KEL as the unit head in Kasaragod.
No one should sit idle: Minister
Responding to industries department principal secretary Hanish, minister Rajeeve said no employee should be allowed to sit idle.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the minister called for rationalising the employees based on production. "Employees' salaries should come from the factory's profit," he said and told his officials that the unit should be "working in full capacity by July-August".
When contacted, Varghese said a new unit would take time to run at full capacity and said it was expecting new orders from the Railways. The stakeholders also agreed to appoint an MBA graduate with expertise in marketing to find new clients and market for KEL-EML's products.
In his report presented at the meeting, KEL MD Varghese said KEL-EML was likely to end FY2022 with a turnaround of Rs 12.32 crore. Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB) chairman Ashok R asked KEL-EML to furnish details of orders the unit was expected to win.
As recommended by RIAB, the chief minister announced a Rs 77-crore revival package for KEL-EML after its takeover, and sanctioned Rs 20 crore on April 1, when he inaugurated the unit.
Varghese said most of the Rs 20 crore was spent on clearing the liabilities of the employees.
Employees of the government cleared the salary dues till March 2020. From March 2020 to April 2022, when the unit remained shut first because of covid lockdown and then for lack of working capital or work order, the government agreed to pay 35% of the salary. "The decision to pay only 35% of the salaries was forced on employees and yet the management has not released the amount," said Ragesh Kumar. The management has also withheld 10% of gratuity and salary dues of retired employees, he said.
Of the Rs 20 crore, around Rs 6.5 crore was spent on clearing dues of the employees, Rs 2.5 crore was spent on bettering the infrastructure and around 3.25 crore was spent on clearing dues of the clients, said an official. "Around 8 crore has not been spent yet," he said.
When contacted, Varghese did not share the details of the fund usage but said: "To the best of my knowledge (there is) no unspent amount".
Employees said the government hard-bargained with clients and repaid only a portion of what was owed to them as a one-time settlement. "But we have to depend on the same clients. Now they are demanding cash in advance before delivering raw material," said another employee.