Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

TEL staff want nitroglycerine ban lifted

Staff Reporter

Curbs have put `company, workers' future in jeopardy'

VELLORE: The Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Ltd. (TEL) Employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) has appealed to the Prime Minister to lift or relax the ban on production of nitro-glycerine (NG)-based explosives and permit TEL to manufacture, possess, sell and use P-1, P-3 and P-5 explosives and direct Coal India Ltd. and other organised sector customers/government organisations to use these varieties of explosives for their mining activities.

The TEL JAC's plea comes in the wake of the March 24, 2005 notification issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India exempting M/S.Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Eastern Coalfields Limited and the Central Mining Research Institute (CMRI) from the ban on possession, transport and use of P-3 type NG-based explosives (Belgex Coal-R). Belgex Coal-R is a type of NG-based explosives manufactured by the Bharat Explosives Limited, Lalitpur, U.P. The exemption was granted by the Ministry on a representation from M/S.Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Eastern Coalfields Limited and CMRI to the Centre that P-3 type NG-based explosives (Belgex Coal-R) are used in the Blasting Gallery method in underground mines and that there was no substitute available for this type of explosive in the market. The notification permits Bharat Explosives Limited to produce 500 tonnes of P-3 type NG explosives (Belgex Coal-R).

The Government of India banned the production, possession, sale and use of NG-based explosives with effect from April 1, 2004 following requests from various state governments, which said that these explosives were ending up in militants' hands.

The TEL JAC's plea also comes in the light of the fact that TEL had been making profits from the sale of NG explosives which enjoyed a good patronage among the users, which included the mining sector, agriculture sector and the National Highways. The company's turnover declined following the ban on NG explosives, causing concern among the employees about their future.

The JAC specially appealed to the Chief Minister to take up the matter with the Central Government and to save the government enterprise on which depended 1000 employees for their livelihood.

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