Holding banners and black flags, the workers under the aegis of Paradip-Ersama Industrial Workers’ Union (PEIWU) sloganeered against the IOCL authorities and staged protest, pressing for the fulfilment of a 10-point charter of demands.
Reportedly, the protest was led by president of the union Bapi Sarkhel. The union has staged the agitation demanding salary hike, retention of existing workers and timely disbursal of salaries.
“Since the last two years IOCL authorities have been delaying and denying the demands of the workers citing various reasons. If the demands are not fulfilled at the earliest, the agitation will be intensified,” President of PEIWU, Bapi Sarkhel said.
The workers alleged that IOCL authorities are being callous towards their demands. The union has also threatened to continue the strike until their demands are fulfilled.
No comment from IOCL authorities could be obtained on the matter.
Cuttack: More than a hundred workers of a beverage plant in Jagatpur area of Cuttack staged protest in front of the plant on Tuesday demanding permanent employment.
According to sources, the protest was launched by the workers after the company started recruiting new people without providing permanent employment to existing workers.
To resolve the matter, a time was fixed by the police for a meeting today morning, but the workers were not allowed to enter the company premises. Subsequently, the workers sat on a dharna raising slogans against the HR manager of the plant.
“The HR has been totally callous towards us. Workers are being given contractual jobs instead of permanent ones. Without giving any notice, they shut down the gate when our workers came today for work. That’s why we are staging protests here,” said an agitating worker.
Till now, the company has not commented on the matter or issued any statement regarding the same.
According to reports, the tragic incident occurred when nearly nine labourers were engaged in loading activities and a heap of coal at the stock yard caved in trapping the labourers.
Bodies of three labourers were rescued and three others were shifted to the hospital while few labourers are still feared to be trapped at the site.
“So far we have recovered three bodies while three other labourers are undergoing treatment at Bhadrak and Basudevpur hospital,” said Bhadrak Collector, Gyana Das.
Following the incident, the labourers went on rampage inside the port and ransacked property. Port office, a four wheeler and other vehicles parked inside the port were set on fire by the agitating labourers.
“We want adequate compensation to the kin of those killed in the mishap,” said a labourer.
The labourers also ransacked a fire tender that had rushed to the spot to douse the flames and also allegedly assaulted CEO Subrat Tripathy.
“They started beating people including the CEO soon after the mishap,” said Security Officer, Rajiv Ghose.
Keeping in view the palpable tension, five platoons of police force have been deployed at the site, said SP Anup Sahu.
"The contract workforce is getting impacted on account of Maggi noodles lines being shut down and the service providers are trying to redeploy around 500 of their contract workers elsewhere," Himangshu Manglik, spokesperson for Nestle's Indian operations, told IANS via an email.
The Nestle factory unit at Maulingem, in Bicholim sub district, manufactures Maggi noodles, sauces, ketchup as well as soups. But Manglik said the production of Maggi soup has completely stopped for now.
Manglik said "there is no impact" on the permanent employees of the company.
Goa had the banned sale of Maggi from Monday and nearly nine tonnes of Maggi noodles has already been withdrawn by the company.
Maggi has also been ordered withdrawn by the food safety regulator, even as many states have issued their own ban orders after tests reportedly revealed excess amounts of MSG and lead in the popular packaged noodles.
Odisha, which has witnessed the worst migration scenario, has been in limelight for the record spike in COVID cases due to heavy influx backed by scores of stories on the plight of these migrants.
From Bhadrak to capital Bhubaneswar to the far-off Malkangiri, scenes of the crisis hitting the migrant amid lockdown have captured the focus of all.
With no job at hand and resources slowly draining out, the predicament has hit old persons, children and women among the migrants the most than anyone. For them, it seems better to die walking home rather than wait and see a painful death due to hunger.
A number of instances coming to the fore on a daily basis reveal a clear picture on how workers returning from other States to Odisha and those exiting Odisha to their home State are bearing the brunt of COVID lockdown, be it lack of transportation facilities, food, shelter or even absence of healthcare.
Many don’t think twice before setting a journey by foot or cycle all the way to their homes and seeking unsafe rides in other vehicles braving all odds.
https://youtu.be/VJacjDmzLpY
According to sources, as many as 250 labourers of several districts like Balasore, Bhadrak who managed to return to Odisha after a lot of hardships are yet to get back to their homes even though they had arrived in Khurda 3 days ago.
The returnees who also include several kids and women have alleged that they haven’t received any assistance from the administration let alone food and shelter.
They have sought help from the authorities to make arrangements for their return to their home districts.
A video which has surfaced shows the returnees criticising the government for not coming to their rescue. In the video, people could be seen venting their anger on the government for bringing them back and forcing them to stay without any facilities far away from their home.
“We are fighting Corona but the situation was so uncaring that we were forced to drink poor quality water from the train toilet,” a returnee said while narrating about their return to Odisha from Surat.
“The government is only dramatising the concept of social distancing but in reality, we were brought here in buses like a bunch of animals,” said another returnee.
The authorities could not be contacted over the issue.
On the other hand, the State government has initiated bus services to help migrants reach the state border in order to alleviate problems faced by migrants travelling from Odisha.
After a migrant Odia worker died on road in Andhra Pradesh while walking back home, police have lent a helping hand to those going out of Odisha on foot by arranging buses to take them to the border of the state, an official said on Thursday.
Six buses carrying more than 250 workers, who were walking home, were dropped on the borders of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh on Wednesday evening, a senior police officer said.
The officer said a large number of migrant workers are found transiting through Odisha on foot to reach their home states.
"Odisha Police is using buses from important checkpoints like Sohela, Girisola and Kerada to carry the migrants to the border," the official said.
He said two buses from Sohela check gate in Bargarh district dropped migrant workers of Jharkhand at Biramitrapur in Sundargarh district.
Similarly, the workers of West Bengal were picked up near Jamsola gate in Mayurbhanj district and dropped near their state border.
Two buses from Kerada in Rayagada district also dropped migrants of Chhattisgarh at border points in Nabarangapur and Nuapada districts, the officer said.
The Odisha government has made the arrangements following reports of a 21-year-old worker collapsing and dying on the road apparently due to sunstroke at Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh. The man had walked 300 km with three friends in a bid to reach Malkangiri district.
Another migrant worker returning from Kolkata to Odisha died after collapsing near Laxmannath Gate in Jaleswar area of Balasore. His mobile phone call details indicate that he belongs to Kakatpur area in Puri.
The deceased 56-year-old migrant worker, identified as Dhubei Charan Mohanty was a resident of Tikarpada village in Kakatpur. He was rushed to a Community Health Centre after he collapsed on the road in the scorching heat, where he was declared dead. The victim was working with a private company in Kolkata.
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The government has increased the rate of payment under MGNREGS for work with effect from April 1 to largely help migrant workers who are without work due to the lockdowns and suspension of business activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
So far (up to June 2) in this financial year 48.13 crore man-days of work have been generated under MGNREGS. The government is looking at its employment guarantee scheme to help workers find temporary employment and get wages on their return home.
The government has increased MGNREGA wages by Rs 20 in this financial year that will provide the additional benefit of Rs 2000 annually to a worker.
The Rs 1.7 lakh crore PMGKP package was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 to protect the weaker and most vulnerable sections of society from the impact of the lockdowns.
Under the package, the government announced free foodgrains and cash payment to women and poor senior citizens and farmers. Its swift implementation is being continuously monitored by Central and State governments.
Under the PMGKP, the government has also so far provided 36.93 lakh tonne foodgrains to 73.86 crore beneficiaries for April, 32.92 lakh tonne foodgrains to 65.85 crore beneficiaries for May and 3.58 lakh tonne foodgrains to 7.16 crore beneficiaries for June.
Besides, 1.91 lakh tonne of pulses has also been provided to 17.9 crore households out of a total of 19.4 crore beneficiaries.
The plan to give advance benefit to EPFO subscribers has also be lapped up by 16.1 lakh members of EPFO taking the benefit of online withdrawal of non-refundable advance amounting to Rs 4,725 crore so far till June 2.
The government has amended EPFO regulations to include Covid-19 pandemic as the reason to allow the non-refundable advance of 75 per cent of the amount or three months wages whichever is lower, from their accounts. Families of four crore workers stand to benefit from this window.
(IANS)
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