Paswan: Job hope

Ranchi, April 1: Metallurgical and Engineering Consultants (Mecon) will be merged with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced here today.

The merger, he said, was a long-standing demand made by the consultancy major as the only viable option for its survival and a formal resolution was adopted by the Mecon board last month.

The ministry has agreed to the proposal in principle, Paswan said, adding that after it is vetted by the finance ministry, he would place it before the cabinet for concurrence. In any case, the minister pointed out that Mecon had been a part of Hindustan Steel, which later emerged as SAIL.

The exercise, however, will take time as several formalities need to be completed before the merger can take place, Paswan said. Not only was Mecon in the selloff list of the erstwhile ministry of disinvestment but it had also been referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. A major financial restructuring of the firm would also have to be carried out before the merger, the minister added.

In yet another announcement, the minister said all casual workers engaged in the public sector steel plants would be absorbed as regular staff in phases. Contract labourers, however, would be left out of the scheme, he added.

During his earlier stint as the Union railways and communications minister, Paswan recalled, thousands of casual workers had been given regular employment. Now that public sector steel plants are earning profits, they should face no difficulty in absorbing more workforce, but gradually, he said. The intake will be determined by the profit earned by the plants.

Paswan assured that no steel plant will be closed down, not even the loss-making ones. The IISCO merger plan was also passed, he said.