Paradip, Nov. 12: Tension prevailed in the Essar steel plant site today as workers seeking release of arrears and wage hike continued their agitation as they have been doing since the past 72 hours.
Contractual workers cordoned off the entry route to the steel project completely disrupting the production in the steel unit. On Tuesday, the project site had witnessed violence with agitated workers fighting a pitched battle against police and company officials. Nearly 25 people, including policemen, were injured as the agitators resorted to stone-pelting. As the workers blocked the road leading to the project, the police tried to disperse them. That triggered tension as agitators did not relent. The workers tried to force their way to the company office. But, timely police intervention averted that.
With situation considerably tense at the plant site, authorities have beefed up security in and around the plant.
"Situation has been brought under control after the violent clash. The police are keeping tabs on the situation. No further untoward incident has been reported after the clash," said Paradip additional superintendent of police Madhabanand Sahu.
The workers charged that the company was perpetrating an exploitative policy towards the part-time workers. "They are being lowly paid in gross disregard to central and state labour rules and legislations. The casual labourers are being paid a low daily allowance of Rs 133. Nearly 1,000 contract workers are yet to be paid their legitimate wages since the past one year," alleged workers' union spokesman Sudhakar Mantri.
District labour officer Bighnajit Mohapatra said: "Sizeable bulks of employees officiating in the company are on contractual payroll. The complainants who were contractual workers alleged that the company was meting out a raw deal to them. For almost six months, the company did not release their salary as fixed under the contract agreement."
A company official said: "Steps are being taken to release the arrears and legitimate dues of contractual labourers shortly."
