The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : Speaker urges government to take over defunct sugar mill

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Friday, Apr 01, 2005

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Speaker urges government to take over defunct sugar mill

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, MARCH 31 . The Speaker, M.D.R. Ramachandran, today asked the government to take immediate steps to take over the privately managed sugar mill at Ariyur near here and run it as a cooperative undertaking.

He was intervening during question hour in the Assembly when members said that the government's intervention was important to save the sugarcane farmers and also workers attached to the mill. The mill had been defunct for some time now.

The Speaker said that that only a takeover would provide an effective solution and there should be no delay in this.

Raising the issue of plight of the farmers and the mill workers, the DMK members, S.P. Sivakumar, Annibal Kennedy and R. Siva, said that it was "mind-boggling" that despite the sufferings of farmers and employees no perceptible action had been taken by the government.

`Nidhi' limited

Mr. Kennedy said that the mill management had floated a `nidhi' limited and a number of persons who had deposited their money in the company were left in the lurch. Stern penal action should be taken against those responsible for the sufferings inflicted on the depositors, he said.

He urged the government to take over the mill and bring relief to farmers, workers and also those who had deposited money in the `nidhi' limited. The Speaker supported his plea.

Mr. Sivakumar said that a number of persons who had pledged their jewels with the `nidhi' limited had also not been able to redeem the ornaments.

Replying to the members' views, the Labour Minister, E. Valsaraj, said that due to financial difficulty the mill had ceased crushing operations.

He said that a labour dispute on settlement of wages had cropped up at the instance of joint action committee of workers. The issue had been placed before the Industrial Dispute Tribunal.

As the matter was now sub judice he said he felt that there could be no discussion on the matter in the House.

The Speaker and other members told the Minister that there was no reference in the debate to any matter pending before the tribunal.

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