Paswan addresses a large crowd at Jamua on the occasion of health camp organised by SAIL. Picture by Shahnawaz Akhtar

Jamshedpur/Giridih, Aug. 5: The issue of the indefinite economic blockade at Gua mines would be taken before the Prime Minister, said steel, chemical and fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan here today.

Paswan, the Lok Janshakti Party president, also vehemently criticised Madhu Koda and his government for their failure in every front.

“I do not know for whose benefit the Jharkhand government is working. They do not want to give ore to SAIL but are willing to give it to private companies,” he said, while addressing the media at Jamua. He was here to attend a health camp organised by SAIL.

The blockade has stopped supply of iron ore to several SAIL plants.

Talks to end the stalemate between Supply Mazdoor Sangh, the union spearheading the movement at Gua, and SAIL ended inconclusively in Calcutta yesterday.

The president of the sangh and brother of the Jharkhand chief minister, Rajesh, returned to the city today and said the economic blockade would be extended to Kiriburu, Megahataburu, Chiria and Bolani mines by Tuesday.

The striking workers had imposed the economic blockade at Gua mines, demanding the regularising of 700-odd contract workers.

Union minister Paswan also criticised Rajesh, who had yesterday asked SAIL to leave Jharkhand.

“The chief minister’s brother and the Jharkhand government want to shut down the SAIL unit in the state. I have no problem if they want such a thing to happen. We have options to set shop in other states but such a move would put those dependent on SAIL in trouble,” said the steel minister.

“I will write to the chief minister of Jharkhand but I will also talk to the Prime Minister and ask him to intervene and find a solution.”

The Union minister was here to attend a health camp organised by SAIL under corporate social responsibility scheme at the block headquarter of Jamua.

Paswan, who can boast of being a Union minister in the UPA government as well as during the earlier NDA regime, said it was his plan to set up a new steel plant in Jharkhand.

“I have done good work no matter what ministry I was given, be it railway, coal or the present portfolios. Now the Indian steel sector is doing great with Mittal taking over Arcelor and Tata’s buying Corus,” he said.

“I have allotted Rs 40,000 crore for the development of SAIL, including Rs 10,000 crore for the Bokaro plant. We will produce 200 tonnes of steel by 2020. Now I want to set up a 15-million-tonne steel plant in Jharkhand at the cost of Rs 150 crore that will give employment to 10,000 people. But the state government does not want to give us a share in Chiria mines.”

He said they had asked for two-thirds of the ore, but the government did not agree.

Addressing the gathering, the LJP president fired more salvos on the Koda government.

“Here, no one is the government — neither the UPA nor the NDA — and some inefficient people who have nothing to do with development are running the government. There is corruption everywhere in the state and people are crying for basic necessities,” added Paswan.

The party’s state unit president Hidyatullah Khan, national unit youth secretary Raj Kumar Raj, district president Kameshwar Paswan, former MP of Koderma T.D. Singh and managing director of SAIL S.K. Srivastava were present on the occasion.

Rajesh, meanwhile, held a meeting at Gua today to apprise the contract labourers about the developments that had taken place in Calcutta. He again said SAIL should be kicked out of Jharkhand as they were working against the interest of the workers.

With the economic blockade entering the fifth day, production has not been affected as the workers have decided not to disrupt routine mining. However, supply of iron ore to SAIL plants in Durgapur and Burnpur have been disrupted.

In July, the workers had staged a protest, demanding the regularisation of their jobs.

Around 688 supply workers are involved in production of iron ores and are working in at least 17 departments that deal with the production of iron ores.

According to a source, after the murder of Hari Om Jha (not Rama Pandey, as was mentioned in the earlier reports), the chief minister had influenced the management and the workers to appoint his younger brother as the president.

Jha, a former associate of the chief minister who was murdered in Calcutta, had allegedly worked against Madhu Koda during the Assembly elections.