Team News Riveting
Raipur, January 11
KSK Mahanadi Power Company Ltd, an arm of Hyderabad-based KSK Energy Ventures Ltd, had declared lockout at its Chhattisgarh plant following alleged workers’ unrest.
The company had set up Chhattisgarh’s biggest private sector power plant at Nariyara of Akaltara tehsil in Janjgir-Champa district with an installed capacity of 3600-Mw. The project had been partially commissioned.
The management of KSK Mahanadi Power Company Ltd yesterday fixed a notice at the main-gate of the power plant declaring its intention to execute a lockout with effect from January 10, 2021. The company cited workers’ unrest as reason for shutting down the plant already running under loss.
“On January 9, 2021, a group of workers closed the main gate and stopped the movement of vehicles carrying coal and ash. Resultantly, the operation of the plant was badly affected and the company incurred heavy financial losses,” the company said in the notice. Further, a big group of workers forcefully stopped the coal feeding operations and denied to work without any prior information also on the same day, it added.
The action by a “big” group of workers tantamount to illegal strike and hence the management is declaring lockout of the factory vide Section 24(3) of the Industrial Disputes Acts, 1947, with effect from January 10, 2021, the notice said. The copy of the notice had been sent to the authorities concerned.
The trade union contested the company’s claim. “The unions are demanding an eight percent yearly wage hike since the last three years but the management is not paying heed to it despite the fact that the company has been revived and is in good health,” United Mazdoor Sangh President Sumit Singh.
A token strike was called on Saturday 3pm after giving due information to the management but the latter did not respond. Subsequently, the workers stopped the production and asserted that they would not work till the wage related demands were settled.
Following raw material crises as the company failed to get coal blocks in the state and reduction of power tariff by its key customers including Uttar Pradesh had plunged the company into crises. KSK Mahanadi defaulted on bank loans worth Rs 21,760 crore as of March 2018.
The lenders are now staring at a significant write-off in the account as the company had been referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for debt resolution. On average, banks are taking a 50 per cent haircut in debt resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
The Chhattisgarh government had started the process of parley to resolve the dispute and restore production.
