Palakkad: Top officials of the Union department of heavy industry have agreed to value the Instrumentation Limited (IL) at Rs 53 crore for transferring it to the state government. While the staff belonging to CITU and INTUC are in favour of the takeover, the BMS is holding talks with Union ministers to stop it and settle the salary arrears on account of delay in pay revision since 1997.
“With the valuation done for the machinery, inventory, payables and receivables at a meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram, we are hopeful that the matters have reached an advanced stage. The next step is a signing of an MoU. We had asked Union minister for heavy industries Anant Geete to settle the arrears by including it in the MoU before the transfer,” E. Jayachandran, secretary Instrumentation Supervisors Association said.
The IL had another unit at Kota in Rajasthan, and unlike the Palakkad unit, it was loss-making. The Union government had paid a compensation of '742 crore while closing it. The unions have demanded settlement of arrears at the earliest.
But the BMS representatives who are presently in Delhi and held talks with Babul Supriyo, minister of state for heavy industries said the transfer would not happen till 2019 general elections as CPM would make it a poll issue. “Settling of the arrears is of prime importance. For the Central government which spent Rs 742 crore for closing the Kota unit, this is the easiest option. But, we will try our best to keep the unit with the Union government,” BMS leader K. Krishnakumar said. At present, there are 276 employees here.
