Kohinoor Steel: Strict stand

Jamshedpur, Aug. 9: Kohinoor Steel Plant Pvt. Ltd today threatened to pull out from the state after some men barged into its premises at Chowka in Chandil yesterday and beat up employees following the death of a worker in a mishap.

The attack had forced the management to shut down the plant, which resulted in losses worth Rs 5 crore.

“Growing incidents of vandalism on the company’s premises are alarming. Yesterday, some men enjoying the backing of a political party barged into our premises soon after getting news about the accident and beat up the employees. About 15 employees were injured, one of them seriously. He is now undergoing treatment at Tata Main Hospital. If such incidents continue to take place, we will be forced to withdraw our operations from the state,” said a spokesperson of the company.

Company officials revealed that they were not being able to carry out expansion activities because of local disturbances. Last year, it had to divert an investment of about Rs 200 crore from Jharkhand and set up a paper mill — one of the biggest in eastern India — at the Falta special industrial zone in Bengal.

Yesterday, a labourer, Fudul Majhi, who was tightening a conveyer belt of a crusher machine, was killed in a mishap at the plant.

Soon after the incident, a group of local residents blocked the main gate of the company and forcefully entered the premises in five vehicles. They also tried to stop the functioning of turbines of the power plant in the sponge iron plant, which could have resulted in a major mishap.

In a similar incident in July 2007, local JMM activists armed with traditional weapons had stormed the company after a mishap inside the sponge iron plant. The men had ransacked the plant and machinery, forcing the steel plant to suspend production for about two weeks that resulted in a loss of over Rs 25 crore.

Meanwhile, the Chowka police have registered an FIR on the basis of the statement of an employee, Sujit Singh, who was injured in yesterday’s attack.

The management had already handed over Rs 50,000 to Majhi’s family yesterday. Today, the company offered a job to his brother and announced a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakh.