Hyderabad: Ex-employees of the Ramagundam unit of the Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) in Peddapalli district are demanding that the quota in recruitment promised for them or their children by the Centre should be implemented.
“Union chemicals and fertilizers minister Ananth Kumar positively responded to our request, but higher officials have started recr-uitment and are ignoring locals,” said Mr Mallipudi Sundara Raju, an ex-employee of the FCI and president of the FCI Revival Committee.
After suffering prolon-ged delays and teething problems, work on the Rs 4,700-crore gas-based urea plant with production capacity of 3,500 tonne per day is taking off. Over 55 per cent of works on pipelines drawing water from the Yellampalli reservoir and gas from the Kakinada-Gujarat pipeline have been almost completed.
“We demand that the Centre and FCI management maintain a certain provision for ex-employees or their children,” he said.
“The management issued a tender notice for outsourcing personnel. This is not required, the unit can hire local youth as outsourcing staff. If ex-employees are not suitable for employment, their children should be considered,” said Mr Raju, who had fought for the revival of the plant ever since it was closed down in March 1999.
He said over 90 per cent of workers involv-ed in the ongoing revival works are from northern states like UP, Bihar, etc.
When it was closed, FCI-Ramagundam had 1,800 permanent staff and 2,000 outsourcing workers. It recently concluded hiring of management trainees and outsourcing staff required for the unit. No locals or children of ex-employees were taken despite availability of talent, said Mr Mohammed Shariff, whose father was an FCI employee.
“The unit was closed down, when my father was 50-year-old and now he’s almost 70. I have completed ITI and waiting for the revival of the unit. But, I am still unemployed. On the other hand, recruitment is going on by totally ignoring locals and children of ex-employees of FCI,” Mr Shariff said.
The FCI unit is expected to be operational in early 2019 as against the previous scheduled date of March 2018.
“We have submitted memorandum to local MP Balka Suman to take it up in Parliament. The BJP is also positive, but the ground reality is that nothing happened for the local youth so far. Locals are not even 20 per cent of the 1,000 workers engaged in revival works,” said Mr Kandi Srinivas, general secretary, Fertilizer Contract Labour Union.
The Centre has announced Rs 5,500 crore for the plant’s revival. Minister Ananth Kumar said it was expected to generate over 3,000 jobs. The revival committee disagrees with the number.
“The number of permanent staff may be limited to 550 in addition to the requirement of outsourcing staff numbering 1,000 as the unit will have modern equipment. The new plant requires just five acres of land as against the previous one spread over 100 acres. Union minister Ananth kumar also assured us that recruitment of Class-IV and other staff will be done through local employment exchanges. This is not happening,” Mr Raju said.
There are no proper basic facilities such as ambulance, catering facility, safe drinking water, labour camp, etc, for workers engaged in the revival project, Mr Srinivas said.
